Global khichdi, Indian tadka

In a seminar on transfer pricing, discussions revolved around how India has been borrowing best practices from around the world. For instance, in the recently introduced advance pricing agreements intended to reduce disputes, global practices may be followed, a consultant from Deloitte said, adding, “but trust our tax department to add the Indian tadka to this global khichdi.” A few years ago, he said, the department introduced the concept of “arithmetic mean”, not found anywhere in the world, in the formula for calculation of arms-length pricing, throwing all transfer pricing calculations awry.