Interest expenses claimed by an entity to its associated enterprises shall be restricted to 30% of its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) or interest paid or payable to associated enterprise, whichever is less.
The provision shall be applicable to an Indian company, or a permanent establishment of a foreign company being the borrower who pays interest in respect of any form of debt issued to a non-resident or to a permanent establishment of a non-resident and who is an ‘associated enterprise’ of the borrower. Further, the debt shall be deemed to be treated as issued by an associated enterprise where it provides an implicit or explicit guarantee to the lender or deposits a corresponding and matching amount of funds with the lender.
The provisions shall allow for carry forward of disallowed interest expense to eight assessment years immediately succeeding the assessment year for which the disallowance was first made and deduction against the income computed under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession to the extent of maximum allowable interest expenditure.
In order to target only large interest payments, it is proposed to provide for a threshold of interest expenditure of one crore rupees exceeding which the provision would be applicable.
It is further proposed to exclude Banks and Insurance business from the ambit of the said provisions keeping in view of special nature of these businesses.
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