ITAT Rejects Ad-hoc Estimation of Cost of Acquisition; MVR-Based Valuation to Prevail

Gyasuddin Mohammad Ansari Vs ITO (ITAT Patna) The Patna DB Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Kolkata (virtual court) allowed the assessee’s appeal for AY 2023-24, holding that the CIT(A) erred in arbitrarily estimating the indexed cost of acquisition at ₹20 lakh without assigning any cogent basis. The Tribunal noted that the assessee had furnished the Minimum Valuation Register (MVR) rates downloaded from the Government’s Bhoomi Jankari – Bihar portal to substantiate the cost of acquisition of land received through Panchnama Batwara. Merely doubting the credibility of a gover...