Determination of Arms Length Price in respect of specified domestic transactions in proceedings before Transfer Pricing Officer
Section 92CA of the Act provides that the Assessing Officer, if he considers it necessary or expedient to do so, may with the previous approval of Principal Commissioner or the Commissioner, refer the matter of determination of Arm’s Length Price (ALP) in respect of an international transaction or specified domestic transaction (SDT) to the Transfer Pricing Officer (TPO). Once reference is made to the TPO, TPO is competent to exercise all powers that are available to the Assessing Officer under sub-section (3) of Section 92C for determination of ALP and consequent adjustment. Further, under section 92E of the Act, there is a reporting requirement on the taxpayer and the taxpayer is under obligation to file an audit report in the prescribed form before the Assessing Officer (AO) containing details of all international transactions or SDT undertaken by the taxpayer during the year.
2. This audit report is the primary document with the AO, which contains the details of international transactions and/or SDT undertaken by the taxpayer. If the assessee does not report such a transaction in the report furnished under section 92E then the Assessing Officer would normally not be aware of such an International Transaction/SDT so as to make a reference to the TPO.
3. The section, provides that if, during the course of proceeding before him, an international transaction comes to the notice of the TPO, which has not been referred to him by the AO, the TPO can proceed to determine the ALP in its respect as well. It also provides for computation of ALP by the TPO, of those international transactions, details of which have not been furnished in the audit report referred to above. These provisions are in place in sub-section (2A) and (2B) of the section 92CA.
4. However, at present, the above noted provisions of sub-section (2A) and (2B) of section 92CA do not extend to SDTs. It is proposed to amend sub-sections (2A) and (2B) of section 92CA to enable the TPO to deal with SDTs which have not been referred to him by the AO and/or in whose respect audit report under section 92CE has not been filed.
5. These amendments will take effect from the 1st day of April, 2025 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2025-26 and subsequent assessment years.
[Clause 27]
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