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Case lawNotifications2015 › Notification No. 50/2015 [F.No.142/9/2015-TPL] / SO 1683(E)
Notification 24 June 2015

Notification No. 50/2015 [F.No.142/9/2015-TPL] / SO 1683(E)

[To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA, Extraordinary, Part-ii, section 3, Sub-section (ii)]

What this is

Notification No. 50/2015 [F.No.142/9/2015-TPL] / SO 1683(E) was published on 24 June 2015. Its subject is [To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA, Extraordinary, Part-ii, section 3, Sub-section (ii)].

This amends the Income-tax Rules. What it changes is the Rules, not the Act — and a rule can never take away what the section gives.

What it does

The Central Board of Direct Taxes makes the Income-tax (Ninth Amendment) Rules, 2015 under section 295 read with sub-clause (viii) of the Explanation to sub-section (2) of section 288 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, inserting new rule 51A after rule 51 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Rule 51A defines "business relationship" for the purposes of that sub-clause as any transaction entered into for a commercial purpose, other than, first, commercial transactions in the nature of professional services permitted to be rendered by an auditor or audit firm under the Act and the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 and the rules or regulations made under those Acts; and second, commercial transactions in the ordinary course of the company's business at arm's length price, such as the sale of products or services to the auditor as customer in the ordinary course of business by companies engaged in telecommunications, airlines, hospitals, hotels and similar businesses.

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.3s.3
s.288s.515
s.295s.533

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

[TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA, EXTRAORDINARY, PART-II, SECTION 3, SUB-SECTION (ii)]

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE)
(CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES)
NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 24th June, 2015

INCOME-TAX

S.O. 1683(E).— In exercise of the powers conferred by section 295 read with subclause (viii) of Explanation to sub-section (2) of section 288 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Income-tax Rules, 1962, namely:-

1. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (Ninth Amendment) Rules, 2015.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, after rule 51, the following rule shall be inserted, namely:-

"51A. Nature of business relationship.— For the purposes of sub-clause (viii) of Explanation below sub-section (2) of section 288, the term "business relationship" shall be construed as any transaction entered into for a commercial purpose, other than, –
(i) commercial transactions which are in the nature of professional services permitted to be rendered by an auditor or audit firm under the Act and the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949) and the rules or the regulations made under those Acts;
(ii) commercial transactions which are in the ordinary course of business of the company at arm's length price – like sale of products or services to the auditor, as customer, in the ordinary course of business, by companies engaged in the business of telecommunications, airlines, hospitals, hotels and such other similar businesses."

[Notification No. 50/2015, F.No.142/9/2015-TPL]

(RAJESH KUMAR BHOOT)
DIRECTOR (TAX POLICY & LEGISLATION)

Note.— The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) vide notification No. S.O. 969(E), dated the 26th March, 1962 and last amended vide notification No. S.O. 1660(E), dated 22/06/2015.

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.
Rule of the 1962 RulesNow, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 51Arule 253
Rule 51rule 252

From when

24 June 2015.

What to watch

Where you meet it

In testing whether a person is disqualified from acting as an authorised representative or an accountant under section 288, and in an audit engagement's independence assessment.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 51 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

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.

← Notification No. 51/2015 [F. No. 275/11/2015-IT (B)] / SO 1703(E)  ·  Notification No. 49/2015 [F.No.142/1/2015-TPL] / SO 1660(E) →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

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