In Brief
This appeal concerns whether an income tax assessment is valid when the Assessing Officer made a transfer pricing adjustment without referring the matter to a Transfer Pricing Officer, as mandated by CBDT Instruction No.3/2003. The respondent company had received brokerage from its parent company at 0.05%, found to be below market rates. The Assessing Officer added Rs.2,89,82,746 under Section 92 without obtaining a TPO opinion. The Supreme Court held that where international transactions exceed Rs.5 crores, reference to a TPO is mandatory under the CBDT instructions, and failure to do so renders the adjustment bad in law. The Court allowed the appeal and remitted the case to enable proper reference to the TPO.
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