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ARTICLE 3
General Definitions
(1) In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
- (a) the term "Mauritius" means the Republic of Mauritius and includes:
- (i) all the territories and islands which, in accordance with the laws of Mauritius, constitute the State of Mauritius;
- (ii) the territorial sea of Mauritius; and
- (iii) any area outside the territorial sea of Mauritius which in accordance with international law has been or may hereafter be designated, under the laws of Mauritius, as an area, including the Continental Shelf, within which the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to the sea, the seabed and subsoil and their natural resources may be exercised;
- (b) the term "Federal Republic of Germany" means the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the area of the seabed, its subsoil and the superjacent water column adjacent to the territorial sea, insofar as the Federal Republic of Germany exercises therein sovereign rights and jurisdiction in conformity with international law and its national legislation for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living and non-living natural resources;
- (c) the terms "a Contracting State" and "the other Contracting State" mean the Federal Republic of Germany or Mauritius, as the context requires;
- (d) the term "person" includes an individual, a company, a trust and any other body of persons;
- (e) the term "company" means any body corporate or any entity which is treated as a body corporate for tax purposes;
- (f) the term "enterprise" applies to the carrying on of any business;
- (g) the term "business" includes the performance of professional services and of other activities of an independent character;
- (h) the terms "enterprise of a Contracting State" and "enterprise of the other Contracting State" mean respectively an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State and an enterprise carried on by a resident of the other Contracting State;
- (i) the term "international traffic" means any transport by a ship or aircraft operated by an enterprise that has its place of effective management in a Contracting State, except when the ship or aircraft is operated solely between places in the other Contracting State;
- (j) the term "national" means:
- (i) in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany:
- (1) any German within the meaning of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and any legal person, partnership and association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in the Federal Republic of Germany;
- (ii) in respect of Mauritius:
- (1) any individual having the citizenship of Mauritius and any legal person, partnership (société) or association deriving its status as such from the laws in force in Mauritius;
- (i) in respect of the Federal Republic of Germany:
- (k) the term "competent authority" means:
- (i) in the case of Mauritius, the Minister to whom the responsibility for the subject of finance is assigned or his authorised representative;
- (ii) in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Ministry of Finance or the agency to which it has delegated its powers;
- (l) the term "tax" means German tax or Mauritius tax, as the context requires.
(2) As regards the application of the Agreement at any time by a Contracting State, any term not defined therein shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meaning that it has at that time under the law of that State for the purposes of the taxes to which the Agreement applies, any meaning under the applicable tax laws of that State prevailing over a meaning given to the term under other laws of that State.