Payment to US companies for ‘developing tooling’ and ‘validating new process for manufacture’ of wheels is taxable as fees for included services

Chennai bench of the Income-tax Appellate Tribunal  in the case of Wheels India Ltd. Vs. ACIT I.T.A No. 1793/Mds/2006 (Chennai) held that payment made to US companies for ‘developing tooling’ and ‘validating new process for manufacture’ of wheels for commercial vehicle was ‘fees for included services’ as per Article 122 of the India-USA tax treaty. Facts of the case – The taxpayer was engaged in the manufacture of steel wheels for commercial vehicles, passenger cars, utility vehicles, earthmoving and construction equipments, agricultural tractors and defence vehi...