Audit of accounts of certain persons carrying on business or profession
( a) carrying on business shall, if his total sales, turnover or gross receipts, as the case may be, in business exceed or exceeds forty lakh rupees in any previous year 27 [***]; or
( b) carrying on profession shall, if his gross receipts in profession exceed ten lakh rupees in any previous year 27[***],
get his accounts of such previous year 28[***] audited by an accountant before the specified date and obtain before that date the report of such audit in the prescribed form duly signed and verified by such accountant and setting forth such particulars as may be prescribed :
28a [Provided that this section shall not apply to the person, who derives income of the nature referred to in section 44AC or section 44B or section 44BB or section 44BBA or section 44BBB, on and from the 1st day of April, 1985 or, as the case may be, the date on which the relevant section came into force, whichever is later :
Provided further that ] in a case where such person is required by or under any other law to get his accounts audited 29[***], it shall be sufficient compliance with the provisions of this section if such person gets the accounts of such business or profession audited under such law before the specified date and obtains before that date the report of the audit as required under such other law and a further report in the form prescribed under this section.
Explanation : For the purposes of this section,—
( i) "accountant" shall have the same meaning as in the Explanation below sub-section (2) of section 288;
30 [(ii) "specified date", in relation to the accounts of the previous year relevant to an assessment year means,—
( a) where the assessee is a company, the 31st day of December of the assessment year;
( b) in any other case, the 31st day of October of the assessment year.]]