Contributed by Ca. Subhansis Banerjee

Position upto June 30, 2012

Applicability of service tax on remuneration paid to non-executive director (NED), be it as sitting fee, commission or in any other form was a controversial topic under the erstwhile service tax regime.

Before June 30,2012, only selected category of services were liable to service tax andas a result of which, sitting fee, commission or any other form of remuneration if it was for rendering taxable service, question of imposition of service tax was being discussed.

Position from July 1 to August 6, 2012

The definition of service { Sec 66B(44)} under new service tax regime has made it amply clear that any activity performed by a director ( except as an employee) for consideration is liable to service tax with effect from July 1, 2012.

This aspect is being reiteratedby Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) on 13.07.2012, in its presentation clarifying that payment to Directors is taxable and is applicable to all kinds of directors except of government regulatory bodies.

It covers Any monetary or no-monetary consideration Directors’ fee, commission / bonus, company car/ travel reimbursements etc Thus the services performed by a director (other than Managing Director/Executive Director/ Wholetime Director if they are treated as employees of the Company) of a company fall within the ambit of taxable services with effect from 1st July, 2012.

Implication on NED

Because of such change, NED is liable to deposit service tax on remuneration (monetary as well as non-monetary) received from company if the gross service income of NED during the financial year exceeds Rs. 10 lakhs.

Non-monetary consideration such as use of company car, phone or accommodation is required to be valued as per the Valuation Rules and NED is required to comply with all the applicable provision of the service tax law.

Implication on Company
In case of any payment to NED, located outside India, company is required to pay service tax under reverse charge basis and thresh hold limit of Rs. 10 lakhs will not be applicable on such case.
Service tax will be additional cost to the company and company may require taking an approval to accommodate service tax within the ceiling of overall Directors’ remuneration.

Position from August 7, 2012 onwards
Central Board of Excise and Customs have come out with a notification (Notification No. 46/2012) on August 7, 2012, stating that the company is liable to pay service tax as recipient of service on remuneration paid to NED.

Impact of the Notification

• Company will be liable to pay service tax on any remuneration paid to NED whether in the form of money or otherwise.
• NED is not required to pay service tax henceforth.
• No thresh hold limit will be applicable to company. In other words, even if the payment is Rs.1, company is required to pay service tax on the same.
• Company is required to comply with all the necessary compliances, such as obtaining service tax registration, payment of service tax, filing of tax return as applicable under the service tax law.
• Company may be required to take permission under company law, because of service tax,if total remuneration to NED exceed the approved amount.
• For a trading company service tax so paid as recipient of service, will be cost to the company.
• For non-trading company service tax so paid may be available as credit if it qualifies as eligible input service.

Open Issue

In the absence of mention of any date in the notification, it shall be effective from the date of publication in the official gazette. Notification No. 46/2012, empowering company to pay tax under reverse charge basis was published in the official gazette on August 7, 2012. Accordingly, Notification No. 46/2012 should be effective from August 7, 2012, the date when the same was published in the Official Gazette. Considering the said fact, can company take a position that payment of remuneration to NED will be subject to tax at their end only from August 7, 2012, onwards?

Way forward

• Any payment to NED needs to be scrutinised from the perspective of service tax.
• Service rendered prior to August 7 but payment is made after August 7, the liability is required to be determined as per Point of Taxation Rules
• Taxable value of non-monetary remuneration is required to be ascertained as per Service Tax Valuation Rules.
• Eligibility of cenvat credit in respect of service tax so paid by the company as recipient of service needs to be examined on cases to case basis.

What is ‘service’?
‘Service’ has been defined and means -any activity for consideration carried out by a person for another and includes a declared service.
The said definition further provides that ‘Service’ does not include -
- Any activity that constitutes only
- A transfer in title of goods or immovable property by way of sale, gift or in any other manner or
- A transfer, delivery or supply of goods which is deemed to be a sale of goods within the meaning of clause (29A) of article 366 of the Constitution
- A transaction only in money or actionable claim
- A service provided by an employee to an employer in the course of the employment.
- Fees payable to a court or a tribunal set up under a law for the time being in force
To determine whether you are providing a ‘Service’ Pose the following questions to yourself

[*if you are a person doing business through an establishment located in the taxable territory and another establishment located in non taxable territory OR a association or body of persons or a member thereof then please see Explanation 3 to clause (44) of section 65B of the Act before answering this question]
If the answer to the above questions is as per the answers indicated in column 2 of the table above THEN you are providing a service.

Taxability of a ‘service’

The taxability of services or the charge of service tax has been specified in section 66B of the Act. To be a taxable a service should be – provided or agreed to be provided by a person to another in the taxable territory and should not be specified in the negative list.
The phrase “agreed to be provided” has been retained from the definition of taxable service as contained in the erstwhile clause (105) of section 65 of the Act. The implications of this phrase are- – Services which have only been agreed to be provided but are yet to be provided are taxable
- Receipt of advances for services agreed to be provided become taxable before the actual provision of service
- Advances that are retained by the service provider in the event of cancellation of contract of service by the service receiver become taxable as these represent consideration for a service that was agreed to be provided.

Negative List
In terms of Section 66B of the Act, service tax will be leviable on all services provided in the taxable territory by a person to another for a consideration other than the services specified in the negative list. The services specified in the negative list therefore go out of the ambit of chargeability of service tax. The negative list of service is specified in the Act itself in Section 66D. In all, there are seventeen heads of services that have been specified in the negative list.

• Services provided by Government or local authority
• Services provided by Reserve Bank of India
• Services by a foreign diplomatic mission located in India
• Services relating to agriculture or agricultural produce.
• Trading of goods
• Processes amounting to manufacture or production of goods
• Selling of space or time slots for advertisements other than advertisements broadcast by radio or television
• Access to a road or a bridge on payment of toll charges
• Betting, gambling or lottery
• Entry to Entertainment Events and Access to Amusement Facilities
• Transmission or distribution of electricity
• Specified services relating to education
• Services by way of renting of residential dwelling for use as residence
• Financial activity
• Services relating to transportation of passengers
• Service relating to transportation of goods
• Funeral, burial, crematorium or mortuary services including transportation of the deceased

Place of Provision of Service

The ‘Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012′ specify the manner to determine the taxing jurisdiction for a service. Hitherto, the task of identifying the taxing jurisdiction was largely limited in the context of import or export of services. For this purpose rules were formulated which handled the subject of place of provision of services somewhat indirectly, confining to define the circumstances in which a provision of service would constitute import or export.
The new rules will, on the other hand, determine the place where a service shall be deemed to be provided, in terms of section 66C of the Finance Act, 2012, read with section 94 (hhh) of Chapter V of the Finance Act, 1994. In terms of section 66B, a service is taxable only when, inter alia, it is “provided (or agreed to be provided) in the taxable territory”. Thus, the taxability of a service will be determined based on the “place of its provision”. The ‘Place of Provision of Services Rules, 2012′ will replace the ‘Export of Services, Rules, 2005′ and ‘Taxation of Services (Provided from outside India and received in India) Rules, 2006.

Declared Services

In the definition of ‘service’ contained in clause (44) of section 65B of the Act it has also been stated that service includes a declared service. The phrase ‘declared service’ is also defined in the said section as an activity carried out by a person for another for consideration and specified in section 66E of the Act. The following nine activities have been specified in section 66E:
1. Renting of immovable property;
2. Construction of a complex, building, civil structure or a part thereof, including a complex or building intended for sale to a buyer, wholly or partly, except where the entire consideration is received after issuance of certificate of completion by a competent authority;
3. Temporary transfer or permitting the use or enjoyment of any intellectual property right;
4. Development, design, programming, customization, adaptation, up gradation, enhancement, implementation of information technology software;
5. Agreeing to the obligation to refrain from an act, or to tolerate an act or a situation, or to do an act;
6. Transfer of goods by way of hiring, leasing, licensing or any such manner without transfer of right to use such goods;
7. Activities in relation to delivery of goods on hire purchase or any system of payment by installments;
8. Service portion in execution of a works contract;
9. Service portion in an activity wherein goods, being food or any other article of human consumption or any drink (whether or not intoxicating) is supplied in any manner as part of the activity.

Exemptions

Under the present system there are 88 exemption notifications. The need for exemptions is not obviated with the introduction of negative list. While some existing exemptions have been built into the negative list, others, wherever necessary, have been retained as exemptions. In addition some new exemptions are also proposed to be introduced. For ease of reference and simplicity most of the exemptions are now a part of one single mega exemption notification 25/2012-ST dated 20/6/12

SECTION 119 OF THE INCOME-TAX ACT, 1961 – INCOME-TAX AUTHORITIES – INSTRUCTIONS TO SUBORDINATE AUTHORITIES – AUTHORIZATION OF AOs IN CERTAIN CASES TO RECTIFY/RECONCILE DISPUTED ARREAR DEMAND

CIRCULAR NO. 4 OF 2012, DATED 20-6-2012

The Board has been apprised that in certain cases the assessees have disputed the figures of arrear demands shown as outstanding against them in the records of the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officers have expressed their inability to correct/reconcile such disputed arrear demand on the ground that the period of limitation of four years as provided under sub-section (7) of section 154 of the Act has expired.
Further, in some cases, the Assessing Officers have uploaded such disputed arrear demand on the Financial Accounting System (FAS) portal of Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru which has resulted in adjustment of refund arising out of processing of Returns against such arrear demand which has been disputed by such assessees on the grounds that either such demand has already been paid or has been reduced/ eliminated in the appeals, etc. The arrear demands, in these cases also were not corrected / reconciled for the reason that the period of limitation of four years has elapsed.
2. The Board, in consideration of genuine hardship faced by the abovementioned class of cases, in exercise of powers vested under section 119(2)(b) of the Act, hereby authorize the Assessing Officers to make appropriate corrections in the figures of such disputed arrear demands after due verification/reconciliation and after examining the same on merits, whether by way of rectification or otherwise, irrespective of the fact that the period of limitation of four years as provided under section 154(7) of the Act has elapsed.
3. In view of the above the following has been decided:-
(a) In the category of cases where based on the figure of arrear demand uploaded by the Assessing Officer but disputed by the assessee, the Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru has already adjusted any refund arising out of processing of return, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall verify the claim of the assessee on merits. After due verification of any such claim on merits, the Assessing Officer shall issue refund of the excess amount, if any, so adjusted by CPC due to inaccurate figures of arrear demand uploaded by the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer, in appropriate cases, will also upload amended figure of arrear demand on the Financial Accounting System (FAS) portal of Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru wherever there is balance outstanding arrear demand still remaining after aforesaid correction/ reconciliation.
(b) In other cases, where the assessee disputes and requests for correction of the figures of arrear demand, whether uploaded on CPC or not uploaded and still lying in the records of the Assessing Officer, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall verify the claim of the assessee on merits and after due verification of such claim, will make suitable correction in the figure of arrear demand in his records and upload the correct figure of arrear demand on CPC portal.
4. It is specifically clarified that these instructions would apply only to the cases where the figures of arrear demand is to be reconciled/ corrected – whether such arrear demand has been uploaded by the Assessing Officer on to Financial Accounting System (FAS) of CPC or it is still in the records of the Assessing Officer.
This may be brought to the notice of all the officers of your CCA region.

Circular No. 4 of 2012, dated 20-6-2012

The Board has been apprised that in certain cases the assessees have disputed the figures of arrear demands shown as outstanding against them in the records of the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officers have expressed their inability to correct/reconcile such disputed arrear demand on the ground that the period of limitation of four years as provided under sub-section (7) of section 154 of the Act has expired.

Further, in some cases, the Assessing Officers have uploaded such disputed arrear demand on the Financial Accounting System (FAS) portal of Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru which has resulted in adjustment of refund arising out of processing of Returns against such arrear demand which has been disputed by such assessees on the grounds that either such demand has already been paid or has been reduced/ eliminated in the appeals, etc. The arrear demands, in these cases also were not corrected / reconciled for the reason that the period of limitation of four years has elapsed.

2. The Board, in consideration of genuine hardship faced by the abovementioned class of cases, in exercise of powers vested under section 119(2)(b) of the Act, hereby authorize the Assessing Officers to make appropriate corrections in the figures of such disputed arrear demands after due verification/reconciliation and after examining the same on merits, whether by way of rectification or otherwise, irrespective of the fact that the period of limitation of four years as provided under section 154(7) of the Act has elapsed.

3. In view of the above the following has been decided:-

(a) In the category of cases where based on the figure of arrear demand uploaded by the Assessing Officer but disputed by the assessee, the Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru has already adjusted any refund arising out of processing of return, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall verify the claim of the assessee on merits. After due verification of any such claim on merits, the Assessing Officer shall issue refund of the excess amount, if any, so adjusted by CPC due to inaccurate figures of arrear demand uploaded by the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer, in appropriate cases, will also upload amended figure of arrear demand on the Financial Accounting System (FAS) portal of Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bengaluru wherever there is balance outstanding arrear demand still remaining after aforesaid correction/ reconciliation.

(b) In other cases, where the assessee disputes and requests for correction of the figures of arrear demand, whether uploaded on CPC or not uploaded and still lying in the records of the Assessing Officer, the jurisdictional Assessing Officer shall verify the claim of the assessee on merits and after due verification of such claim, will make suitable correction in the figure of arrear demand in his records and upload the correct figure of arrear demand on CPC portal.

4. It is specifically clarified that these instructions would apply only to the cases where the figures of arrear demand is to be reconciled/ corrected – whether such arrear demand has been uploaded by the Assessing Officer on to Financial Accounting System (FAS) of CPC or it is still in the records of the Assessing Officer.

NOTIFICATION NO. 21/2012 [F.No.142/10/2012-SO(TPL)] S.O. 1323(E), DATED 13-6-12

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section(1F) of section 197A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Government hereby notifies that no deduction of tax shall be made on the following specified payment under section 194J of the Act, namely:-

Payment by a person (hereafter referred to as the transferee) for acquisition of software from another person, being a resident, (hereafter referred to as the transferor), where-
(i) the software is acquired in a subsequent transfer and the transferor has transferred the software without any modification,
(ii) tax has been deducted-
(a) under section 194J on payment for any previous transfer of such software; or
(b) under section 195 on payment for any previous transfer of such software from a non-resident, and
(iii) the transferee obtains a declaration from the transferor that the tax has been deducted either under sub-clause (a) or (b) of clause (ii) along with the Permanent Account Number of the transferor.

2. This notification shall come in to force from the 1st day of July, 2012.

( J. Saravanan)
Under Secretary(TPL-III)

A.P. (DIR SERIES 2011-12) CIRCULAR NO. 118, DATED 7-5-2012
As per current provisions, upto USD 5000 or its equivalent, can be released BY AD, for all permissible transactions on the basis of a simple letter from the applicant containing the basic information, viz., names and the addresses of the applicant and the beneficiary, amount to be remitted and the purpose of remittance. It was clarified in the circular that Authorised Dealers need not insist upon submission of A2 Forms in such cases. (A.P.(DIR Series) Circular No. 55 dated December 23, 2003.)
With a view to further liberalizing the documentation requirements, the limit for foreign exchange remittance for miscellaneous purposes without documentation formalities, has been raised from USD 5000 to USD 25000 with immediate effect.
It is clarified that Authorised Dealers need not obtain any document, including Form A-2, except a simple letter as stated above as long as the foreign exchange is being purchased for a current account transaction (not included in the Schedules I and II of Government Notification on Current Account Transactions), and the amount does not exceed USD 25000 or its equivalent and the payment is made by a cheque drawn on the applicant’s bank account or by a Demand Draft. AD banks shall prepare dummy A-2 so as to enable them to provide purpose of remittance for statistical inputs for Balance of Payment

RBI/2011-12/536
A. P. (DIR Series) Circular No.117

May 07, 2012

To
All Authorised Dealer banks and Authorised banks
Madam/Sir,

Transfer of Funds from Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account to Non-
Resident External (NRE) Account

The Committee to Review the Facilities for Individuals Under FEMA, 1999 (Chairperson : Smt. K.J.Udeshi) has recommended that the NRIs/PIOs may be permitted, subject to payment of applicable taxes, to transfer repatriable funds from their NRO account within the overall ceiling of US $ 1 million per financial year, for credit to their NRE account in India. At present transfer of funds from NRO to NRE account is not permissible.

2. On a review, it has been decided that henceforth NRI as defined in Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2000 contained in Notification No. FEMA.5/2000-RB dated 3rd May 2000, as amended from time to time, shall be eligible to transfer funds from NRO account to NRE account within the overall ceiling of USD one million per financial year subject to payment of tax, as applicable (i.e. as applicable if funds were remitted abroad). Such credit of funds to NRE account shall be treated as eligible credit in terms of paragraph 3(j) of Schedule-1 of Notification No. FEMA.5/2000-RB dated 3rd May 2000.

3. All Authorised Dealer banks and Authorised banks may bring the contents of this circular to the notice of their constituents and customers concerned.

4. The directions contained in this circular have been issued under Sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999) and are without prejudice to permissions/approvals, if any, required under any other law.

Yours faithfully,

(Rudra Narayan Kar)
Chief General Manager

RBI/2011-12/506 DBOD. AML.BC. No 93 /14.01.001/2011-12                    April 17, 2012

The Chairmen / Chief Executive Officers

All Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding RRBs)/

All India Financial institutions/ Local Area Banks

Dear Sir,

Know your Customer (KYC) Guidelines – Accounts of Proprietary Concerns

1. Please refer to our circulars DBOD. AML BC. No. 80/14.01.001/2009-10 dated March 26, 2010 and DBOD. AML.BC. No. 38 /14.01.001/2010 -11 dated August 31, 2010regarding customer identification procedure for opening accounts of proprietary concerns.

2. On a review, it has been decided to include the following documents in the indicative list of required documents for opening accounts of proprietary concern:

i) The complete Income Tax return (not just the acknowledgement) in the name of the sole proprietor where the firm’s income is reflected, duly authenticated/ acknowledged by the Income Tax Authorities.

ii) Utility bills such as electricity, water, and landline telephone bills in the name of the proprietary concern.

Yours faithfully,

(Sudha Damodar)

Chief General Manager

Tax Rates Remain Unchanged

• The corporate tax rates remain unchanged at 40% for a foreign company.
• The surcharge applicable on companies with total income exceeding INR 10 million also remains same at 2% for Foreign Companies.
• Similarly Education Cess and Secondary Higher Education Cess continue to be levied at 2% & 1% respectively.

Withholding Taxes

• On Interest

Section 115A (ii) which provides for withholding of tax on interest paid to non residents on External Commercial Borrowings (i.e borrowings in Foreign Currency) has been reduced from 20% to 5%(plus applicable surcharge and cess) for certain specific sectors¹ for a period of 3 years².

It is further proposed to insert a new section 194LC to provide that interest income paid by such specified company¹ to a nonresident shall be subjected to tax deduction at source at the rate of 5% (plus applicable surcharge and cess).

This amendment will take effect from 1st July, 2012.

On Royalty

• Royalty paid to non residents is subject to withholding to tax at the rate of 10% as per section 115A;
• Section 9(1)(vi) that any income payable by way of royalty in respect of any right, property, or information shall be deemed to accrue or arise in India;
• The definition of royalty is provided in explanation 2 to section 9 of The Income Tax Act. The definition of royalty has always been a matter of dispute, this year budget provides a clarification explanation to be included in section 9(1)(vi) by way of retrospective amendments from 1^st June, 1976 will accordingly apply in relation to the assessment year 1977-78 and subsequent assessment years..
• The explanation has been included to target payments towards shrink-wrap and embedded software, online databases and data clouds, which have been disputed before Indian tax courts in the past (except data clouds) and include them within the ambit of ‘royalty’.
• The proposed explanation seeks to include that “consideration for use or right to use” of computer software is royalty, by clarifying that it includes and has always included transfer of all or any right for use or right to use a computer software (including granting of software) irrespective of the medium through which it is transferred.
• Further explanation has been included that royalty includes “consideration in respect of any right, property or information whether or not”:

(a)  The possession or control of such right, property or information is with the payer;

(b) Such right, property or information is used directly by the payer;

(c)  The location of such right, property or information is in India.

• The term “process” includes and shall be deemed to have always included transmission by satellite (including up-linking, amplification, conversion for down-linking of any signal), cable, optic fiber or by any other similar technology, whether or not such process is secret.  The impact of this is that non-resident broadcasters could be required to pay tax on royalty in India on account of providing services in India.

On Non Resident Sportsmen Or Sports association

Section 115BBA which provides for withholding of tax on payment made to non-resident and non citizen sportsmen or sports association has been raised from 10% to 20% of the gross receipts.

It is further proposed to amend section 115BBA to provide that income arising to a non-citizen, non-resident entertainer (such as theatre, radio or television artists and musicians) from performance in India shall be taxable at the rate of 20% of gross receipts.

On payment made By One Non Resident to Another( Reversal of Vodafone Case)

The recent Supreme Court judgement set out that a requirement of tax presence was necessary for imposing a withholding tax obligation. The decision has been nullified by retrospective amendment in the statute, the budget proposes to tax on indirect transfers of Indian entities by non residents.

The changes made to tax indirect transfers are:

Meaning of Property

As per section 2(14) “capital asset” means property of any kind held by the assessee whether or not connected with his business or profession except stock in trade, consumable stores or raw material held for the purposes of his business or profession.

“Both the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court held in Vodafone that “controlling interest” is not a capital asset”.

The Finance Bill proposes to add the following Explanation and the following Explanation shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of April 1962, namely:

“Explanation- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that ‘property’ includes and shall be deemed to have always included any rights in or in relation to an Indian company, including rights of management or control or any other rights whatsoever.”

Meaning of Transfer

As per section 2(47) transfer means any sale, exchange, extinguishment or relinquishment of rights.

“Revenue’s primary case in Vodafone in the Supreme Court was that there was an “extinguishment” under this provision. It was inserted by Parliament to widen the scope of section 2(47) in order to cover transactions in which there is no sale in the ordinary sense. Although section 2(47) does not so provide, it is submitted that it is not open to the Revenue to invoke “extinguishment” in a transaction in which there is admittedly a sale, simply because that sale is not taxable. The Chief Justice’s implicit approval of this proposition is, it is submitted, to be welcomed.

The Finance Bill proposes to add the following Explanation and the following Explanation shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of April 1962, namely:

“Explanation - For the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that “transfer” includes and shall be deemed always to have included disposing of or parting with an asset or any interest therein, or creating any interest in any asset in any manner whatsoever, directly or indirectly, absolutely or conditionally, voluntarily or involuntarily, by way of an agreement (whether entered into in India or outside India) or otherwise, notwithstanding that such transfer of rights has been characterized as being effected or dependent upon or flowing from the transfer of a share or shares of a company incorporated outside India.”

Scope of Income Deemed To accrue or arise in India

Section 9 contains provision for Income to accrue or arise in India. It is a legal fiction created to tax income which may or may not accrue or arise in India.

Sub clause (1)(i) provides for income accrue or arises in India directly or indirectly, through the transfer of a capital asset situate in India.

“The Supreme Court held in Vodafone that the words “directly or indirectly” do not qualify the transfer of the asset.”

The Finance Bill proposes to add the following Explanation and the following Explanation shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of April 1962, namely:

1. “Explanation - the expression ‘through’ shall mean and include and shall be deemed to have always meant and included “by means of”, “in consequence of” or “by reason of”.

2. “ Explanation-          to clarify that an asset or a capital asset being any share or interest in a company or entity registered or incorporated outside India shall be deemed to be and shall always be deemed to have been situated in India if the share or interest derives, directly or indirectly, its value substantially from the assets located in India.

• Further Amended section 195(1) to clarify that obligation to comply with sub-section (1) and to make deduction there under applies and shall be deemed to have always applied and extends and shall be deemed to have always extended to all persons, resident or non-resident, whether or not the non-resident has:-

(a) a residence or place of business or business connection in India; or

(b) any other presence in any manner whatsoever in India.

1. The specified company shall be an Indian company engaged in the business of -

i.      construction of dam,

ii.      operation of Aircraft,

iii.      manufacture or production of fertilizers,

iv.      construction of port including inland port,

v.      construction of road, toll road or bridge;

vi.      generation, distribution of transmission of power

vii.      construction of ships in a shipyard; or

viii.      developing and building an affordable housing project as is presently referred to in section 35AD(8)(c)(vii).

This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2013 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the Assessment Year 2013-14 and subsequent assessment years.

1. It is proposed to amend Section 115A of the Income Tax Act to provide that any interest paid by a specified company to a non-resident in respect of borrowing made in foreign currency from sources outside India between 1st July, 2012 and 1st July, 2015, under an agreement, including rate of the interest payable, approved by the Central Government, shall be taxable at the rate of 5% (plus applicable surcharge and cess).