Tribunal ruling on taxation of foreign telecasting company in India

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) delivered a ruling on 18 January 2006 in the case of Satellite Television Asian Region Ltd, Hong Kong (STAR) (99 TTJ 1025), in which it held that foreign TV channel companies selling airtime for advertisement (ad airtime) to STAR were liable to tax in India and that the payments made by STAR to the channel companies should be disallowed under Sec. 40(a)(i) of the Income Tax Act 1961 (ITA) in respect of the non-withholding of tax from the payments. D…