COURT: | ITAT Mumbai |
CORAM: | Amit Shukla (JM), G. S. Pannu (AM) |
SECTION(S): | 9(1)(vi), Article 12 |
GENRE: | Domestic Tax, International Tax |
CATCH WORDS: | royalty, software licensing |
COUNSEL: | Sunil Moti Lala |
DATE: | June 13, 2016 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: | August 4, 2016 (Date of publication) |
AY: | 2006-07 |
FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
CITATION: | |
S. 9(1)(vi)/ Article 12: Consideration received for sale of computer software programme in CD Rom is not assessable as “royalty”. The retrospective amendment in Explanation 4 to section 9(1)(vi) to tax such receipts as royalty has no application to DTAA if the definition of the term “royalty” in the DTAA has remained unchanged |
The retrospective amendment brought into statute with effect from 01.06.1976 cannot be read into the DTAA, because the treaty has not been correspondingly amended in line with new enlarged definition of ‘royalty’. The alteration in the provisions of the Act cannot be per se read into the treaty unless there is a corresponding negotiation between the two sovereign nations to amend the specific provision of “royalty” in the same line. The limitation clause cannot be read into the treaty for applying the provisions of domestic law like in Article 7 in some of the treaties, where domestic laws are made applicable. Here in this case, the ‘royalty’ has been specifically defined in the treaty and amendment to the definition of such term under the Act would not have any bearing on the definition of such term in the context of DTAA. A treaty which has entered between the two sovereign nations, then one country cannot unilaterally alter its provision
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