Case law › Notifications › 2020 › Notification No. 75/2020 [F. No. 370142/8/2020-TPL] / GSR 574(E)

Notification 22 September 2020

Notification No. 75/2020 [F. No. 370142/8/2020-TPL] / GSR 574(E)

Ministry of Finance

What this is

Notification No. 75/2020 [F. No. 370142/8/2020-TPL] / GSR 574(E) was published on 22 September 2020. Its subject is Ministry of Finance.

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 Income-tax (21st Amendment) Rules, 2020 amend rule 29B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 so that the words "banking company", wherever they occur, are substituted by "banking company or an insurer", and insert an Explanation after sub-rule (5) giving "insurer" the meaning assigned to it in sub-clause (d) of clause (9) of section 2 of the Insurance Act. Form No. 15C is substituted by a new form, now titled an application by a banking company or insurer for a certificate under section 195(3) for receipt of interest and other sums without deduction of tax. The effect is to extend the rule 29B no-deduction certificate route, previously open to banking companies, to insurers as well.

Who it reaches

Insurers operating in India through a branch and receiving interest and other sums
Foreign banking companies already using rule 29B and Form No. 15C
Payers of interest and other sums to such branches, who would otherwise deduct under section 195(1)
Assessing Officers issuing certificates under section 195(3)

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 Act	Now
s.2	s.2, s.346, s.355
s.3	s.3
s.193	s.393
s.195	s.393, s.395, s.397, s.400
s.295	s.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.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(Department of Revenue)
(CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 22nd September, 2020
Income-Tax
G.S.R. 574(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 295 read with section 195 and rule 5 of the First Schedule to 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. Short title and commencement.— (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (21st Amendment) Rules, 2020.
(2) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the principal rules), in rule 29B,––
(a) for the words "banking company", wherever they occur, the words "banking company or an insurer" shall be substituted;
(b) after sub-rule (5), the following explanation shall be inserted, namely ––
"Explanation.–– for the purposes of this rule, "insurer" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in sub-clause (d) of clause (9) of section 2 of the Insurance Act, 1939 (4 of 1938)."

3. In the principal rules, for Form 15C, the following form shall be substituted, namely,––

"FORM NO 15C
[See rule 29B]
Application by a banking company or insurer for a certificate under section 195(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, for receipt of interest and other sums without deduction of tax

To
The Assessing Officer,
__________________
Sir,

I, _______________, being the principal officer of _________________ [name of the banking company or insurer] hereby declare:

(a) that ____________________is a banking company/insurer which is neither an Indian company nor a company which has made the prescribed arrangements for the declaration and payment of dividends within India and which is operating in India through a branch(es) at_______________________;

(b) that the head office of the said company or insurer is situated at _______________ [name of the place and country];

(c) that the said company or insurer is entitled to receive interest (other than 'Interest on securities') and other sums not being dividends, chargeable under the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961, during the financial year;

(d) that the company fulfills all the conditions laid down in rule 29B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

I, therefore, request that a certificate may be issued authorising the said company/insurer to receive interest other than interest on securities (other than interest payable on securities referred to in proviso to section 193) and other sums not being dividends, without deduction of tax under sub-section (1) of section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, during the financial year __________. I hereby declare that what is stated in this application is correct.

Signature
Date ______________________ Address ____________________".

[Notification No. 75/2020/F. No. 370142/8/2020-TPL]

ANKIT JAIN, Under Secy. (Tax Policy and Legislation Division)

Note. The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) vide notification number S.O. 969(E), dated the 26th March, 1962 and was last amended vide notification number G.S.R. 508 (E), dated 17.08.2020.

Uploaded by Dte. of Printing at Government of India Press, Ring Road, Mayapuri, New Delhi-110064
and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054.

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 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 29B	rule 209

Forms it touches. Form No. 15C

From when

the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

What to watch

The rules come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette; no retrospective effect is stated.
Form No. 15C is substituted in full, so the earlier form cannot be used for applications made after commencement.
The applicant must declare that it is neither an Indian company nor a company that has made the prescribed arrangements for declaration and payment of dividends within India, and that it operates in India through a branch.
The certificate sought covers interest other than interest on securities, excluding interest payable on securities referred to in the proviso to section 193, and other sums not being dividends.
The Explanation cites the Insurance Act by two different years in the text as printed, so the citation should be checked against the parent Act.

Where you meet it

In an application in Form No. 15C to the Assessing Officer for a section 195(3) certificate, and in the payer's decision not to deduct tax on interest and other sums paid to the branch.

What it names

Forms it names. Form No. 15C

Rules it names. Rule 29B, 5 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. 89/2026-CBDT [F. No. 164/1/2026-ITA-1] / SO 3936(E) — Ministry of Finance 17 July 2026
Notification No. 75/2026 [F. No. 275/18/2026-IT(B)] / SO 3610(E) : TDS Exemption on Ship Lease Payments to IFSC Units — 4 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 3 July 2026
Notification No. 74/2026 [F. No. 275/16/2026-IT(B)] / SO 3609(E) : TDS Exemption on Aircraft Lease Payments to IFSC Units — 4 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 3 July 2026
Notification No. 65/2025 [F. No. 300196/4/2019-ITA-I] / S.O. 2739(E) — Ministry of Finance 19 June 2025
Notification No. 56 /2025 [F.No.300164/4/2024-ITA-1] / SO 2576(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 12 June 2025
Notification No. 52/2025 [F. No. 300164/5/2024-ITA-1] / SO 2447(E) — Ministry of Finance 30 May 2025

← Notification No. 81/2020 [F.No.279/Misc./66/2014-SO-ITJ(Pt.)]/ SO 3309(E) · Notification No. 74/2020 [F. No. 178/42/2017-ITA-1] / SO 3122(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.