The Appellate Authority has recently upheld the order of the Board of Discipline of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and held that the Chartered Accountant involved in arranging bogus bills through dummy concerns and charged commission for the same was rightly held guilty for committing the Professional and Other Misconduct.
A complaint was lodged against a Chartered Accountant for arranging accounting bills raised by 16 parties amounting to Rs. 14.09 Crores to M/s Sunil Hi-Tech Engg. Ltd (SHEL). It was alleged that the said entries were not genuine and the appellant had charged commission @0.25% to 1% of the transactions for arranging accounting entries.
The CIT (A) has reviewed all statements recorded, documents seized and the statement of the Appellant before the Income Tax and found the Appellant involved in arranging the bogus bills through bogus concerns promoted by him and charged commission.
The Director (Discipline) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India found that the appellant is guilty of misconduct falling within the meaning of the provisions of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
The Appellate Authority has found that the Appellant has admitted that he had taken the commission but it was taken by him as a trustee on behalf of various contractors, which, considering the facts and circumstances involved in the matter, according to us is totally untenable.
“Further, the allegation of the Appellant that the Board of Discipline relied on statements of other persons or on documents not before it, is also not true as the Board of Discipline has relied only on the statement of Appellant himself and the aforesaid Order passed by the learned CIT(A). More so, the veracity of these documents has not been disputed by the Appellant anywhere and at any stage of the proceedings of this matter,” the AA said.
The order further said that when the Appellant has himself admitted charging commission at every stage of proceedings, there is no scope to challenge the findings and the Order passed by the Board of Discipline.
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