Case law › Notifications › 2021 › Notification No. 117/2021 [F. No. 370142/44/2021-TPL] / GSR 661(E)

Notification 24 September 2021

Notification No. 117/2021 [F. No. 370142/44/2021-TPL] / GSR 661(E)

Ministry of Finance

What this is

Notification No. 117/2021 [F. No. 370142/44/2021-TPL] / GSR 661(E) was published on 24 September 2021. 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 (30th Amendment) Rules, 2021, made under sub-section (2) of section 92CB read with section 295, amend sub-rule (3B) of rule 10TD of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The words and figures 'assessment year 2020-21' are substituted by 'assessment years 2020-21 and 2021-22', so that the safe harbour rates in rule 10TD continue to apply for assessment year 2021-22 as well.

Who it reaches

Eligible assessees who opted for safe harbour on international transactions for assessment year 2021-22
Transfer pricing officers processing those options
Transfer pricing advisers computing safe harbour margins

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.92CB	s.167
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 24th September, 2021
INCOME-TAX
G.S.R. 661(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 92CB read with section 295 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. Short title and commencement. - (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (30th Amendment) Rules, 2021.
(2) They shall be deemed to have come into force from the 1st day of April, 2021.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, in rule 10TD, in sub-rule (3B), for the words and figures "assessment year 2020-21", the words and figures "assessment years 2020-21 and 2021-22" shall be substituted.

[Notification No. 117/2021/F. No. 370142/44/2021-TPL]

NEHA SAHAY, Under Secy. (Tax Policy and Legislation)

Explanatory Memorandum : It is hereby certified that no person is being adversely affected by giving retrospective effect to these rules.

Note : The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, section-3, sub-section (ii) vide number S.O. 969 (E) dated the 26th March, 1962 and were last amended vide notification number GSR 627 (E) dated the 13th September, 2021.

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 10TD	rule 89

From when

1 April 2021, retrospectively.

What to watch

The rules are deemed to have come into force from 1 April 2021 and are therefore retrospective; the explanatory memorandum certifies that no person is adversely affected.
Only the years covered by sub-rule (3B) change; the safe harbour rates themselves are untouched.
The principal rules were last amended by G.S.R. 627(E) dated 13 September 2021.

Where you meet it

In the exercise of the safe harbour option under rule 10TD for assessment year 2021-22 and in the transfer pricing officer's treatment of that option.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 10TD 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. 21/2025 [F. No. 370142/6/2025-TPL] / GSR 193(E) — Ministry of Finance 25 March 2025
Notification No. 58/2023/ F. No. 370142/26/2023-TPL] / GSR 595(E) — 579(अ) तारीख 1 अगस्ट्त, 2023 द्वारा सिोधन दकया गया था । 9 August 2023
Notification No. 90/2015 [F.No. 142/7/2014-TPL] / SO 3312(E) — Ministry of Finance 8 December 2015
Notification No. 11 2015 [F.No. 142/7/2014-TPL] / SO 350(E) — [To BE Publsihed in the Gazette of INDIA Extraordinary, Part Ii,section 3, Sub-section (ii)] 4 February 2015
Notification No. 54/2026 [F. No. 370142/15/2026-TPL] / G.S.R. 240(E) — Ministry of Finance 31 March 2026
Notification No. 52/2026 [F.No. 370142/13/2026-TPL] / G.S.R. 233(E) — (Central Board of Direct Taxes) 30 March 2026

← Notification No. 118/2021 [F. No. 370142/47/2021-TPL] / GSR 713(E) · Notification No. 116/2021 [F. No. 370142/39/2021-TPL] / SO 3903(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.