Management fees whether "make available" technology for end use as per Indo-Singapore DTAA

Facts:

Assessee, the Singapore arm of International Hotel Group (IHG) was recipient of management service fee revenues from its frachisee group of hotels in India. Revenue held this to be taxable under Fee for technical services (FTS) Article 12(4) of Indo-Singapore DTAA. Assessee contended the services did not 'make available' any technology and were general consultancy services only; thus outside the realm of Article 12(4) of Indo-Singapore DTAA. On higher appeal by assessee -

Held in favour of assessee that the management services did not make available any technology to be taxed as per Article 12(4) of Indo-Singapore DTAA.

Ed. Note: Each DTAA reads differently on management service fee taxability. Indo-Swiss DTAA reads it more widely to tax even management consultancy for instance. So individual treaty provisions need to be reviewed and tax structured to derisk such levies.

Case: Inter Continental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd. v. ACIT 2023 TaxPub(DT) 775 (Del-Trib)