What is the India–Nepal treaty withholding rate on royalties and fees for technical services?

Royalty: 15% of the gross amount — Article 12 (Royalties), India–Nepal DTAA (as amended through 20 Aug 2026). Equipment-use royalties sit inside the royalty definition and take the same 15%. This treaty has NO fees-for-technical-services article: FTS falls to business profits (PE required) or other income on the treaty's own terms — a structural feature, not an omission. The treaty has NO FTS/FIS article at all — verified against the full government-hosted text (zero occurrences of 'technical services' anywhere in the treaty or its Protocol), and technical services are NOT folded into the Art 12(3) royalty definition either. Consequence (India–UAE pattern): FTS paid to a Nepal resident falls to Art 7 (Business Profits) or Art 14 (Independent Personal Services) — not taxable in India absent a PE/fixed base — subject to the revenue's recurring contrary argument that treaty-silent income reverts to domestic law (s.115A, 20% plus surcharge/cess since FA 2023). make_available is 'absent' only trivially, because no FTS article exists to carry the restriction. Note Protocol para 1 separately provides that more-beneficial domestic law overrides the treaty. Gate: the treaty rate applies only through s.393(2) Sl. No. 17 → s.2(90)(c) with the s.159(8) TRC + Form 10F gate met; domestic comparator 20% + surcharge/cess (s.207(2)). Notes: no-FTS-article (FTS falls to Art 7/Art 14 or, on the revenue view, domestic s.115A at 20% — now HIGHER than the 15% treaty royalty rate since FA 2023); equipment-royalty inside Art 12(3) definition with no separate rate limb — flat 15%; royalty-only MFN clause in Protocol, Nepal-side trigger, never activated; treaty renegotiated recently relative to corridor age: 2011 revision replaced the 1987 treaty (numbering shifted; older commentary cites the 1987 text); treaty 15% royalty rate exceeds India's pre-2023 domestic 10% — treaty was long non-beneficial for royalties; post-FA-2023 (domestic 20%) the treaty 15% is again the beneficial rate; Protocol para 1 domestic-law-override clause is unusual and interacts with rate comparisons.