Rule 290 — Report of audit of accounts to be furnished under Schedule IX read with section 48 for deduction for tea development account, coffee development account and rubber development account. Made under s.48 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 290 gives effect to Section 48 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. A rule cannot go beyond the section it serves: where the two seem to differ, the section governs.
The rule prescribes the form of one audit report. The report of audit of the accounts of an assessee required to be furnished under paragraph 2 of Schedule IX to the Act read with section 48 — the deduction for a tea development account, coffee development account and rubber development account — shall be in Form No. 182.
The rule prescribes the form and nothing else: no time limit, no auditor's qualification and no procedure of its own.
Paragraph 2 of Schedule IX makes the deduction conditional on an audit report being furnished in the prescribed form, and leaves the form to be prescribed. This rule supplies it, so that the deposits into and withdrawals from the development account are reported in a settled format rather than in whatever shape the auditor chooses.
The rule fixes the form; the obligation to obtain and furnish the report, and the time for doing so, come from paragraph 2 of Schedule IX read with section 48, and a reader looking for the deadline in this rule will not find one. Because the deduction is conditional on the report, filing it in some other format does not answer the requirement.
An assessee in the tea, coffee or rubber business meets it once a year, as the Form No. 182 report obtained from its auditor and furnished in support of the deduction.
The report of audit of the accounts of an assessee, which is required to be furnished under paragraph 2 of Schedule IX to the Act read with section 48, shall be in Form No. 182.