The I-T Department announced the deadline for roll-back applications will be extended to June 30 2015.
“Hopefully during this period the revenue will clarify the various open questions such as partial application to certain issues and adjustments, the possibility of opting out of the scheme at a later date etcetera,” said Subhankar Sinha, senior vice president, head of tax South Asia at Siemens.
On March 14, a deadline of March 31 was given. Sanjiv Malhotra, partner at BMR Advisors –Taxand, said the APA timeline was “aggressive” and felt that applicants needed more time to “understand [the provisions] and strategise”.
The APA roll-back scheme was originally announced by Arun Jaitley in his first budget speech as finance minister in 2014, however, roll-back provisions were still pending when Jaitley outlined the budget for 2015.
The Indian government received widespread criticism from tax professionals with many calling the 2015 budget “disappointing” and some saying that Jaitley kept transfer pricing at “arm’s-length”.
It appears the IT-Department listened to this criticism.
Relief for taxpayers
The extension comes as a relief for taxpayers who will now get an additional window of three months to file applications for APAs.
This announcement should come as welcome news but there are still numerous transfer pricing issues that remain unresolved.
Rules for the use of the interquartile range and multiple year data still have yet to be announced and there have been no direct amendments as a result of the Bombay High Court’s ruling in the Vodafone case.
