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Case law › Circulars › 1975 › Circular No. 163
CBDT circular 29 May 1975

Circular No. 163

[Withdrawn by Circular No. 7/2009, Dated 22-10-2009]

What this is

Circular No. 163 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 29 May 1975. Its subject is [Withdrawn by Circular No. 7/2009, Dated 22-10-2009].

This grants an exemption or a relief under a provision that allows one. Read the conditions attached: an exemption notification is construed strictly, and a condition missed is the exemption lost.

What it does

Adds a sentence to the end of the last paragraph of Circular No. 23 of 1969 on the taxability of a non-resident's income accruing through or from a business connection in India: that the taxability of such portion of the profits will be subject to the exemption in clause (b) of the Explanation to section 9(1)(i). Nothing else in Circular No. 23 is disturbed.

Why it was issued

The Board added the sentence to remove any possible misunderstanding of the legal position.

Who it reaches

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.
Under the 1961 ActNow
s.9s.9

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

[WITHDRAWN BY CIRCULAR NO. 7/2009, DATED 22-10-2009]
Non-Residents—Income Accruing or Arising through or from Business connection in India—Liability to Tax—Section 9 of the Income-tax Act, 1961
Circular No. 163, dated 29-5-75, CBDT Bulletin XXI/I/2, page 6.

To remove any possible and misunderstanding of the legal position, the Board added the following sentences, at the end of the last para of Board Circular No. 23 of 1969 :-
"The taxability of such portion of the profits will, however, be subject to the exemption provided in clause (b) of the Explanation to Section 9(1)(i)".
[Circular No. 163, dated 29-5-75, CBDT Bulletin XXI/I/2, page 6.]

What to watch

Where you meet it

In an old dispute on attribution of a non-resident's profits to Indian operations where Circular No. 23 was relied on.

What it names

It mentions. Circular No. 23/1969, Circular No. 7/2009

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

← Circular No. 164  ·  Circular No. 162A →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.