Case Law Details
RELEVANT EXTRACT
The assessee, a foreign company, was engaged in operating geostationary telecommunication satellites with transponder capacity which were provided to telecasting companies in India for a fee.
The question arose whether the said fee was “consideration for … the use of any … secret formula or process …” so as to constitute “royalty” under Expl. 2 to s. 9 (1)(vi) and corresponding definition under the DTAA.
In Asia Satellite 85 ITD 478 the Tribunal held that the said receipts were taxable as ‘royalty’ having been paid in respect of a “process”. However, in PanAmSat 9 SOT 100 it was held that as in the term “royalty” in Art. 12 of the India-USA DTAA there was a ‘comma’ after the words “secret formula or process”, it was only a ‘secret process’ which would qualify as royalty and not what was provided by the assessee. To resolve the conflict, the issue was referred to the Special Bench. HELD, reversing PanAmSat:
(i) The provision of the transponder through which the telecasting companies are able to up link the desired images/data and down link the same in the desired area is a “process”. To constitute “royalty”, it is not necessary that the process should be a “secret process”. The fact there is a ‘comma’ after the words “secret formula or process” in the DTAA does not mean that a different interpretation has to be given to the DTAA as compared to the Act;
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