Vijaya Bhavani Constructions P. Ltd. v. ITO (2020) 79 ITR 24( SN) (Hyd) (Trib)

S. 37(1) : Business expenditure –Self made vouchers – Ad-hoc disallowance of 15% of expenditure is based on surmises and conjectures – Held to be not valid .

Tribunal held that the Department had not doubted the nature of expenditure incurred. It had only made the addition because the vouchers were self-made and not verifiable. Though the Department had some justification for making the addition, it had not ventured to look into the net profit earned by the assessee and compared it with the net profit of companies engaged in similar business to establish that the expenditure was inflated. The addition made by the Department was based on surmises and conjectures. In this situation, the addition of Rs. 14,44,500 by estimating the disallowance at 15 per cent. of the expenditure of Rs. 96.30 lakhs was not warranted.( AY.2009-10)