COURSERA INC Vs. INCOME TAX OFFICER, TDS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present writ petition has been filed challenging the order dtd. 27/9/2021 and certificate dtd. 23/9/2021 issued by Respondent No.1, under sec. 197(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ("the Act'). Petitioner seeks directions to the Respondents to issue certificate with "NIL' deduction of income tax in favour of the Petitioner for financial year 2021-22.

(2.) Learned counsel for the Petitioner states that the impugned order dtd. 27/9/2021 rejecting Petitioner's application for NIL deduction directing the customers of the Petitioner to withhold tax @ 10% is arbitrary and no reason has been given in the order for arriving at such a conclusion. She states that the Petitioner acts merely as an aggregator of educational institutions making access to various courses easier and that upon successful completion of the course, a certificate to this effect which bears the seal of the institution concerned is awarded to the student.

(3.) She further states that the Petitioner being a tax resident of USA, has no PE in India and so business profits arising to the Petitioner in India are not liable to tax in India. She also states that the gross receipts of the petitioner can neither be characterised as Royalty nor Fees for included services ("FIS') in terms of Article 12 of India-USA Double Tax Avoidance Agreement ("DTAA'). The Petitioner has not transferred any copyright to its customers as there is no right to commercially exploit the content hosted on the e-platform and/or the services rendered are technical or consultancy in nature. She also submits that the Petitioner has already submitted itself to the Indian Tax jurisdiction by paying Equalisation levy @ 2% in terms of the Finance Act, 2020 and the entire receipts of the Petitioner relates only to the e-commerce activity.