Payment for imported software not royalty, rules SC

A bench of Justices BR Gavai, BV Nagarathna and Pankaj Mithal rejected a batch of review petitions filed by the Commissioner of Income Tax both on merits as well as on the grounds of delay. This means tax liability of foreign software seller without a permanent establishment in India would reduce to the 2% equalisation levy introduced via Finance Act 2020 from the 10%-15% royalty tax, which the Indian buyer has hitherto been liable to withhold.