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3. For the A.Ys. 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, the TPO made adjustments on account of international transactions namely, payment of royalty, sales commission and cost sharing charges. During the year, before us, the TPO repeated the similar additions in addition to adjustment on account of testing charges.

4. The ld. CIT(A) deleted the adjustment made on account of payment of royalty and testing charges whereas the ld. CIT(A) confirmed the ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018 Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

23. On the issue of various components of intra group payments, assessee has given following submissions and reference to corresponding documents to substantiate the payment:

19 ITA Nos. 2025 & 2209/Del/2017

ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018 Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

S. No.   Payment      Nature of payments          Benefits derived by the           Relevant
                                                  appellant                         documents

a.       Sales              JAPAN                     JAPAN                            JAPAN
         commission
                      Paid    to      Johnson     The     appellant   derived       Service
                      Matthey Japan ("JM          significant benefits in the       agreement
                      Japan") for liaison and     form of business from             between appellant
                      marketing      activities   Maruti Suzuki in India.           and JM Japan is
                      undertaken by it in         Further,      the     sales       on page 456 of
                      Japan with Suzuki due       commission paid to AE as          paper book for AY
                      to which the appellant      % of sales to Japanese            2007-08 (Vol. II).
                      secured orders from         customer (2.98%, 2.49%
                                                                                    Copies of invoices
                      Maruti Suzuki in India.     and 0.45% respectively
                                                                                    raised     by   JM
                                                  for AYs 2007-08, 2008-09
                                                                                    Japan are on page
                             UK                   and 2009-10) was much
                                                                                    463 of paper book
                                                  lesser than the marketing
                      Paid to JM UK (only in                                        for AY 2007-08
                                                  costs incurred locally and
                      AY      2009-10)      for                                     (Vol. III)
                                                  internally      by      the
                      liaison and marketing
                                                  appellant as % of sales to        Comparison      of
                      activities undertaken
                                                  non-Japanese customers            marketing cost for
                      by it for potential
                                                  8.15%,      5.39%       and       Japanese      and
                      customers      in  Iran.
                                                  2.20% respectively for            non-Japanese
                      Iran     business   was
                                                  AYs 2007-08, 2008-09              customers;
                      newly     added.    The
                                                  and 2009-10)
                      sales commission paid                                         AY 2007-08           in
                      to JM UK in respect of                                        Vol. II Pg.552
                                                           UK
                      sales to customers in
                                                                                    AY 2008--09           in
                      Iran was similar to the     In lieu of payment made
                                                                                    Vol. II Pg. 596
                      commission paid to an       to JMUK (only in AY
                      independent        third    2009-10),           appellant     AY 2009-10 in
                      party agent which was       derived           significant     Vol. II- Pg. 363
                      appointed       by   the    benefits in the form of
                                                                                           UK
                      appellant              in   new customers in Iran. In
                      subsequent year.            2011, such activity was           Service
                                                  outsourced         to      an     agreement
                                                  independent third party           between appellant
                                                  which                 clearly     and JMUK is on
                                                  substantiates             the     pg. 658 of paper
                                                  business      exigency     to     book for AY 2009-
                                                  have a local agent in Iran        10 (Vol. II) Copies
                                                  to develop customers and          of invoices raised
                                                  to       provide      liaison     by JUMK are on
                                                  activities in relation to the     Pg. 664 of paper
                                                  existing     customers      in    book for AY 20-
                                                  Iran.                             09-10 (Vol. II).

                                                               ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018
                                                                      Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

b.   Server           Paid     to     Johnson    Principle of consistency -        Affidavit      by
     charges (only    Matthey Hong Kong          This payment was not              Johnson Matthey
     in AY 2008-09    for    maintaining    a    separately benchmarked            Hong      Kong  in
     and 2009-10)     centralized server for     in   AY    2007-08     and        respect of server
                      the Asia region, which     allowed but ALP was               charges - pg. 567
                      serves as a common         determined at nil for             of the paper book
                      email               and    subsequent years without          for AY 2008-09
                      communications             any change in facts and           (Vol. II)
                      platform. Cost was         circumstances     of   the
                      allocated among JM         case.
                      Asia entities, and such
                                                 In the absence of such
                      arrangement         was
                                                 payment, appellant would
                      more cost effective.
                                                 not be able to access the
                                                 centralised system set up
                                                 for the Asia region, which
                                                 serves as a common e-
                                                 mail and communication
                                                 platform      for      Group
                                                 entities. Considering the
                                                 co-dependence between
                                                 Group entities, lack of
                                                 access to such system
                                                 would     be    prejudicial.
                                                 Additionally,      if     the
                                                 appellant were to appoint
                                                 an independent entity, it
                                                 would     have       incurred
                                                 significant costs.

c.   SAP              Paid to JM Malaysia        The Asian region head             Copy      of   debit
     Maintenance      ("JMM") for costs on       quarter of the Johnson            notes raised by
     charges (only    SAP Program for the        Matthey Group located in          JMM       on     the
     for AY 2007-     Asia    region.      An    Malaysia implemented the          appellant         for
     08)              independent        third   SAP Program for the               allocated      costs
                      party was appointed        Asian Region. For this            along with third
                      for this purpose and       purpose, a server owned           party        vendor
                      copies   of    invoices    by an independent vendor          invoices for the
                      raised    by       such    was set up in Chennai.            full cost - Pg. 477
                      independent       party    The cost of operating and         to 510 of the
                      were submitted before      maintaining the server            paper book for AY
                      lower authorities. Cost    was incurred by JMM               2007-08 (Vol. II)
                      was allocated among        which was subsequently
                      JM Asia entities, and      recovered from group
                      such arrangement was       entities located in the
                      more cost effective.       region i.e. India, Japan,
                                                 China     and    Malaysia
                                                 equally.
d.   Cost   sharing   Divisional Cost: Paid      Divisional costs and SAP          Divisional costs:
     charges          to JMM for salary costs    ERP system cost :
                      of group head that                                           Debit notes raised
                      were     involved    in    These     costs     provided      by JMM- pg. 475

                                       ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018
                                              Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

strategic          and    access     to    significant     & 476 of the
operational roles, and    exposure and expertise to        paper book for AY
were      deputed    to   appellant. Such payment          2007-08 (Vol. II).
manage      the    Asia   represented             cost
region through the        allocated to appellant by        Affidavit by JMM
regional headquarters     JMM, for common ERP              regarding
in Malaysia.              system implemented for           allocation of such
                          Asia region in 2007 to           costs - Pg. 570 of
SAP ERP system cost :     standardize finance and          the paper book for
AY 2009-10, Cost was      IT      systems.       Such      AY 2008-09 (Vol.
capitalized as capital    standardized         system      II)
work-in-progress          resulted      in    greater
(schedule     4     of    efficiency, risk mitigation,
financial statements)     and significant financial
and not claimed as        savings to appellant.
expense in P & L but
                          The           arrangement
the same was still
                          between appellant and its
disallowed
                          associated      enterprises
                          relating to provision of
                          various
                          "intra group services "
                          provided     the appellant
                          with      the     following
                          benefits :
                          Streamlining the process
                          of   the   appellant   in
                          accordance    with   the
                          standards of the Johnson
                          Matthey Group;
                          Enabling uniform use of
                          systems for accounting,
                          administration      etc.
                          facilitating   case   of
                          communication and co-
                          ordination amongst the
                          members of the Group;
                          Providing     cost-efficient
                          expertise               and
                          management       personnel
                          for the companies of the
                          Johnson Matthey Group in
                          the Asia region;
                          Engaging reliable Group
                          companies to provide for
                          services like marketing
                          and     sales,   customer
                          relationship management,
                          server support etc.
                          The   appellant   derived
                          substantial benefits both

                                                             ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018
                                                                    Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

                                                 in terms of cost and
                                                 efficiency,       through
                                                 centralization of certain
                                                 back-end operations at
                                                 group level and allocating
                                                 the same amongst group
                                                 companies     based     on
                                                 reasonable      allocation
                                                 keys.
e.         Testing       Payment of testing charges to JM Brussels for testing of sample
           charges       catalysts for their conformity with the evolving environmental

41. As regards the intra group services, the assessee in its Form 3CEB has shown following payments to various AEs:-

            A) Testing charges:                 Rs.    3,07,869/-
            B) Sales Commission:                Rs. 1,08,48,310/-
            C) Server charges:                  Rs.     9,88,483/-
            D) SAP maintenance charges:         Rs.    27,12,007/-
            E) Cost sharing charges:            Rs.   73,36,991/-

42. So far as 'testing charges' and 'server charges' are concerned, TPO has not made any addition or adjustment and has accepted to be an ALP though these issues have been taken up by the TPO in assessment year 2008-09, wherein the entire payment has been adjusted and addition ITA Nos. 252, 253, 279 & 889/Del/2018 Johnson Matthey India Pvt. Ltd.

Testing Charges:

7.The assessee selected TNMM as the most appropriate method for benchmarking its international transactions, based on a detailed FAR analysis which is documented in its TP study. Being a manufacturer of auto-exhaust catalysts, appellant utilizes support in the form of technology and various services from its AEs, which help strengthen its manufacturing function. Transactions of testing charges is inextricably linked with the core business of manufacturing the catalysts, as the testing of products is compulsory before selling the same and appellant did not have the facility to test the products. Further, transaction of refining charges is also an integral part of the operations of the Appellant as it does not have the technology and infrastructure to extract precious metal from the scrap.