Assessee company, a tax resident of the UAE, was engaged in business of services like ship chartering, freight forwarding, sea cargo services, shipping line agents etc. Assessee chartered ships for use in transportation of goods and containers in international waters, including to Kandla and Mundra ports as indeed other ports in India and elsewhere. The AO noted that as much as 80 per cent of profits of assessee entity were to go to one D, a Greek national, concluded that assessee was not entitled to benefits of Indo UAE tax treaty, and, accordingly, issued a draft assessment order holding that income from operation of ship was taxable in India. Tribunal held that the  Assessee  had its office in UAE, it was in business there since 2000, it had expatriate employees who had been given a work permit to work in UAE for Assessee Company, and that main driving force of company and its director was an expatriate resident in UAE. Since assessee company was a resident of UAE, in terms of requirements of article 4(1)(b) of Indo-UAE tax treaty, limitation of benefits provisions of article 29 of Indo-UAE tax treaty could not be pressed into service and, thus, under provisions of article 8(1) of Indo UAE tax treaty, assessee company was protected from taxation of income in question in India.  (AY. 2016-17)