2011 (2) TMI 11 - HC - Income Tax

Tribunal accepts assessee's declared GP rate, overturns AO's estimation, and dismisses appeal.

The Tribunal overturned the Assessing Officer's decision to reject the books of accounts and estimate sales and GP rate, accepting the GP rate declared by ... Rejection of book of account - tribunal while decided in favor of assessee on the grounds that: No doubt, day to day stock register is an important record, which was not maintained. However, the books of accounts could not be rejected merely because of its absence, moreso when there was no adverse comments whatsoever about the posting of entries and maintenance of accounts. - The AO was wrongly swayed by the facts that the books of accounts were not shown at the time of survey when a specific explanation was given that they were kept with Chartered Accountant for some accounting verifications - during the survey, the actual stock of the assessee had been physically verified and valued by the Department resulting G.P. rate @ 19.59%. The reason for less GP rate in post survey period, i.e., 22.01.1999 to 31.03.1999 was because of the fact that in this period huge discounts were offered by the assessee on the merchandise. These are the findings of fact arrived at by the Tribunal on the analysis of evidence produced. No question of law arises, this appeal is accordingly dismissed. Issues Involved:1. Discrepancies in Gross Profit (GP) rates.2. Rejection of books of accounts by the Assessing Officer (AO).3. Estimation of sales and GP rate by the AO.4. Tribunal's decision to delete the addition and accept the GP rate declared by the assessee.Detailed Analysis:1. Discrepancies in Gross Profit (GP) rates:The AO observed wide fluctuations in the GP rates for three different periods within the same financial year. The GP rate for the entire year was shown as 14.40%, while it was 1.96% for the period 01.04.1998 to 21.01.1999 and 38.63% for the period 21.01.1999 to 31.03.1999. Despite the assessee's explanation of a typographical error, the AO found significant variations in the GP rates, leading to the rejection of the books of accounts.2. Rejection of books of accounts by the Assessing Officer (AO):The AO rejected the books of accounts citing several reasons:- The Audit Report for the assessment year in question did not mention the maintenance of stock and sales/purchase registers, unlike the previous year.- The Auditor's qualification implied no closing stock inventory was prepared, giving the assessee freedom to manipulate the closing stock and GP rate.- Incorrect inventories of opening and closing stock were filed.- The absence of a stock register due to the multiplicity of items was not convincing.- Discrepancies in the inventories, such as unchanged stock values and rates for certain items throughout the year.- Inadequate production of purchase bills and sale memos.- The AO referenced various judicial decisions to justify the rejection of the books of accounts.3. Estimation of sales and GP rate by the AO:After rejecting the books of accounts, the AO estimated the sales at Rs. 6 Crores and applied a GP rate of 21%, resulting in an addition of Rs. 46,95,347. The AO based this estimation on the assessee's admission of profit margins and discrepancies found during the survey. The CIT (A) upheld this addition, reasoning that unaccounted income found during the survey justified the AO's estimate.4. Tribunal's decision to delete the addition and accept the GP rate declared by the assessee:The Tribunal allowed the appeal and deleted the addition, holding that the GP rate of 14.40% declared by the assessee was proper and reasonable. The Tribunal's reasoning included:- The negligible difference of Rs. 48,000 found during the survey was attributable to a mistake in debiting packing material to the Profit and Loss Accounts.- No adverse comments or incriminating documents were found regarding the posting of entries and maintenance of accounts.- The books of accounts were not shown at the time of the survey because they were with the Chartered Accountant, and a CD of all purchases and sales was provided to the Department.- The GP rate of 19.59% during the survey period and the lower GP rate post-survey due to huge discounts offered were reasonable.- The GP rate of 14.40% for the first year of business was reasonable, and no comparable cases were cited to contradict it.Conclusion:The Tribunal's findings, based on the analysis of evidence, led to the conclusion that the GP rate declared by the assessee was reasonable and the AO's rejection of the books of accounts was unwarranted. Consequently, the appeal was dismissed as no question of law arose from the Tribunal's decision.