आयकर अपील(cid:547)य अ(cid:876)धकरण, हैदराबाद पीठ IN THE INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL Hyderabad ‘DB-B‘ Bench, Hyderabad Before Shri Vijay Pal Rao, Vice-President A N D Shri Manjunatha, G. Accountant Member आ.अपी.सं /ITA No.332/Hyd/2023 (िनधा१रण वष१/Assessment Year: 2017-18)

C5 Infra (P) Ltd Vs. ACIT Secunderabad Central Circle 2(3)

PAN:AAFCC2138K Hyderabad (Appellant) (Respondent)

िनधा१ौरती (cid:554)ारा/Assessee by: Shri K.C. Devdas, CA Shri C. Maheshwar Reddy, CA राज(cid:830) व (cid:554)ारा/Revenue by:: Shri Narender Kumar Naik, CIT(DR)

सुनवाई की तारीख/Date of hearing: 02/07/2025 घोषणा की तारीख/Pronouncement: 25/07/2025 आदेश/ORDER Per Vijay Pal Rao, Vice President This appeal filed by the assessee is directed against the order dated 10/03/2023 of the learned CIT (A)-12, Hyderabad, for the A.Y.2017-18.

2. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal:

3. The solitary issue arises in the case of the assessee is whether in the facts and circumstances of the case, the learned CIT (A) is justified in upholding the additions made by the Assessing Officer on account of unexplained cash expenditure while framing the assessment u/s 153A of the Act in the absence of any incriminating material found or seized during the course of search when the A.Y 2017-18 was not pending on the date of search. The assessee is a company engaged in the execution of civil contract works of roads and irrigation. The assessee filed its original return of income u/s 139(1) of the Act on 31/10/2017 declaring total income of Rs.5,21,66,910/-. The case was selected for scrutiny under CASS and scrutiny assessment was completed u/s 143(3) vide order dated 18/12/2019 at a total income of Rs.5,56,77,225/-. Thereafter, a search & seizure action u/s 132 of the Act was carried out in the case of the assessee on 07/01/2021. During the course of search proceedings, some excel sheets named working.xlsx, jmmr25.11.2016.xlsx containing the names and amounts written against them were found from the email of one Shri B. Veeranjaneyulu, Sr. Accountant, of the assessee company i.e. CIPL and the same were seized. The statement of Shri B. Veeranjaneyulu, Sr. Accountant was also recorded in order to get the explanations of the entries in the excel sheets. Accordingly, a notice u/s 153A of the Act was issued by the Assessing Officer in response to which the assessee filed its return of income on 27/11/2021 declaring the total income of Rs.5,21,66,910/-. The Assessing Officer completed the assessment u/s 153A on 28/03/2022 whereby the additions towards unexplained cash expenses of Rs.16.61 crores were made.

4. The assessee challenged the action of the Assessing Officer before the learned CIT (A) and also filed the additional evidence to explain the details of the entries in the excel sheets as the said cash expenditure was duly recorded in the books of account. The learned CIT (A) called for a remand report and then passed the impugned order whereby the additions made by the Assessing Officer is confirmed to the extent of Rs.10,36,03,435/-

and thereby granted part relief.

5. Before the Tribunal, the learned Counsel for the assessee submitted that the original assessment was completed u/s 143(3) of the Act on 18/12/2019 and therefore, the assessment for the year under consideration was not pending on the date of search u/s 132 i.e. 7/1/2021. The learned Counsel for the assessee has referred to the details as recorded in the excel sheets found during the course of search from the email ID of Shri B. Veeranjaneyulu, Sr. Accountant and submitted that all these entries as part of the excel sheets are duly recorded in the books of account of the assessee and were subject to examination by the Assessing Officer while passing the assessment u/s 143(3) of the Act. He has pointed out that during the assessment proceedings u/s 143(3), the Assessing Officer has also made disallowance u/s

40A(3) of the Act of Rs.31,10,332/- on account of cash expenses. The excel sheets were prepared by the A