Current Affairs - Miscellaneous - Discussion

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) entered into seven more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), taking the total number of APAs to 203 so far. All seven APAs signed in February 2018 are unilateral APAs and pertain to automobile, pharmaceuticals, Financial and Food & Beverages sectors. Out of all APAs entered into by the CBDT till date, 185 are Unilateral APAs and 18 are Bilateral APAs. In the current financial year, i.e. 2017-18, CBDT has entered into 51 APAs so far, out of which, 44 are Unilateral and 7 are Bilateral. APA provisions were introduced in the Income-tax Act, 1961 in 2012. Objective of APA scheme is to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and thereby reducing litigation.