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Issues: (i) Whether the assessee's books of account could be rejected under Section 145 on account of its use of the completed contract/project completion method and variation in flat-booking rates; (ii) Whether addition for alleged undisclosed receipts could be sustained by adopting a uniform base price for flats and treating extra-work payments as the assessee's receipts.
Issue (i): Whether the assessee's books of account could be rejected under Section 145 on account of its use of the completed contract/project completion method and variation in flat-booking rates.
Analysis: Section 145 permits rejection of accounts only where there is a reasonable and cogent basis to conclude that the accounts are incorrect, incomplete, or incapable of determining true income. The completed contract/project completion method was a recognized method consistently followed by the assessee, and the Revenue did not establish that the method itself was impermissible. The Assessing Officer did not compute income under the percentage completion method but estimated profit at 8% of receipts recorded in the books, without comparable cases, past history, project-specific profitability, or other cogent basis. Variation in agreement values for flats, without evidence of unrecorded sales, suppression of receipts, or other accounting defects, did not establish that the books were unreliable.
Conclusion: Rejection of the books of account under Section 145 was unsustainable and is decided in favour of the assessee.
Issue (ii): Whether addition for alleged undisclosed receipts could be sustained by adopting a uniform base price for flats and treating extra-work payments as the assessee's receipts.
Analysis: Adoption of a uniform base price was based on assumption rather than proof that the assessee had actually received the alleged differential consideration. Differences in flat prices could arise from commercial factors including booking timing, payment terms, location, specifications, and negotiations. Payments identified in purchaser inquiries related to separate extra-work agreements with a proprietorship concern; no material established that those sums were received by or belonged to the assessee-company. No purchaser admitted payment of on-money to the assessee, and no independent evidence connected the assessee with any alleged excess consideration.
Conclusion: The addition for alleged undisclosed receipts was unsupported by cogent evidence and is deleted in favour of the assessee.
Final Conclusion: The completed contract/project completion method and the recorded sale consideration were accepted in the absence of demonstrated accounting defects, suppression, or evidence of unaccounted receipts.
Ratio Decidendi: Rejection of books and addition for undisclosed consideration require cogent evidence of accounting unreliability or actual unaccounted receipts; mere preference for another revenue-recognition method, price variation, or estimated differential consideration is insufficient.
Book-rejection standards require cogent evidence; price variations and separate extra-work payments cannot establish undisclosed receipts.
Section 145 permits rejection of books only on a reasonable and cogent basis that accounts are incorrect, incomplete, or incapable of determining true income. A consistently followed completed contract or project-completion method is not invalid merely because another revenue-recognition method is preferred. Variations in flat-booking prices, without proof of suppressed sales, unrecorded receipts, or accounting defects, do not establish unreliability of accounts. Similarly, a uniform base price cannot support an addition for undisclosed consideration without evidence that the differential amount was received by the assessee. Payments under separate extra-work arrangements require evidence linking them to the assessee.
Rejection of books of account for project-completion method in real estate development - Addition for alleged undisclosed consideration on sale of flats Rejection of books of account for project-completion method in real estate development - Rejection of books of account of a real estate developer following the completed contract/project-completion method, on the basis of delayed revenue recognition and variations in flat agreement rates - HELD THAT: - The completed contract/project-completion method, consistently followed by the assessee, was a recognised method of accounting and could not be rejected merely because substantial sale consideration had been received or because the Assessing Officer preferred a different method of revenue recognition. Variations in documented consideration for flats did not establish suppression of receipts without cogent material of actual undisclosed consideration. No specific accounting defect rendering the accounts unreliable was shown; further, the estimated profit was applied to receipts recorded in the very books rejected, without an independent basis for the estimation. [Paras 8, 9, 10, 11] The rejection of books of account under section 145 was held unsustainable and was deleted for both assessment years. Addition for alleged undisclosed consideration on sale of flats - Addition for alleged undisclosed receipts from sale of flats, computed by adopting a common base price despite differing documented agreement values - HELD THAT: - Variation in the booking rates of flats, without positive material establishing that the assessee received consideration over and above that recorded, could not support an addition for on-money. The assumed common base price was unsupported by evidence of actual receipt. Payments identified as consideration for extra work under separate agreements with another concern could not be attributed to the assessee-company merely because its director was connected with that concern; no purchaser admitted payment of on-money to the assessee-company. [Paras 14, 15, 16, 17, 18] The addition for alleged undisclosed receipts was held to rest on inference and estimation rather than cogent evidence and was deleted for both assessment years. Final Conclusion: Both appeals were allowed. The rejection of books of account and the addition for alleged undisclosed receipts were deleted for the assessment years in question.