Dispute Resolution Panels get constituted

Need for Speed…

It has been decided that DRPs will be constituted in eight Indian cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune.  The panel would be collegiums comprising of three Commissioners of Income Tax.

Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified rules to regulate the procedure of DRPs constituted under section 144C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The rules came into effect from 20th November 2009. Any foreign company, or any domestic company with transfer pricing issues, in whose case, the income-tax assessing officer proposes to make any variation in the income or loss returned, may apply to the DRP within a month of receiving the draft assessment order, for appropriate remedy by way of direction to the assessing officer. The direction will be binding on the assessing officer but the taxpayer will be at liberty to appeal against the assessment order incorporating directions of DRP before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

Step in the right direction, obviously.