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2018 (9) TMI 1320 - HC - Income TaxTPA - exclusion of Media Research Users Council (‘MRUC’) from the list of comparables for making transfer pricing adjustment - Held that:- The reasons recorded for excluding MRUC from the list of comparables are multiple and not confined and restricted to the fact that MRUC was a not-for-profit organization. Reference to ‘not for profit’, motive was to show that major source of income earned by MRUC was in form of membership and subscription fee for Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and Indian Outdoor Survey (IOS) reports. The element of quid pro quo or payment of consideration commensurate with the service given was missing and absent. The surveys undertaken by MRUC were on behalf of members of MRUC, consisting of advertisers, publishers, advertising agencies and broadcast and other media, totaling 249 in number. In a way, the MRUC was rendering services and working for its members. The MRUC was also outsourcing most of its activities to a third party research agency. The working pattern and model adopted by MRUC was unlike a commercial organization and completely different. The dissimilarities are too striking and apparent to be ignored. The Transfer Pricing Officer had also contradicted himself as recorded in paragraph 19 of the impugned order. Tribunal, in our opinion, was justified in excluding the MRUC from the list of comparables.
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