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11. Statutory scheme of section 80-IA(7) and its amendment. Prior to the Finance Act, 2020, section 80-IA(7) required that the accounts of the eligible undertaking be audited and that the prescribed report (Form No. 10CCB) be ―furnished along with the return of income.‖ The Finance Act, 2020 modified only the time of furnishing the report is now to be filed ―before the specified date referred to in section 44AB,‖ i.e., one month prior to the due date for filing the return under section 139(1). This change does not recalibrate the substantive eligibility for deduction; it concerns the manner and timing of proof. Properly construed, section 80-IA(7) continues to be a procedural filing requirement designed to ensure verifiability of the claim, whereas the entitlement to deduction flows from section 80-IA(1)/(4) upon satisfaction of the substantive conditions. Read contextually with section 80AC, the statute insists that the return be filed by the section 139(1) due date to preserve Chapter VI-A deductions; section 80-IA(7) then prescribes how the claim is to be evidenced. A shortfall in timing of the audit report--if cured within the statutory framework (particularly when the report Akry Organics Pvt.Ltd., precedes a valid revised return under section 139(5))--is a curable procedural defect, not a forfeiture of the underlying right. This construction avoids elevating form over substance and aligns with the computation-mechanics character of Chapter VI-A deductions.

13.1.The rationale underlying this framework is that the Act itself contemplates that errors or omissions may occur at the stage of filing the original return and therefore grants the Akry Organics Pvt.Ltd., assessee a statutory opportunity to rectify the same. Thus, the revised return, once validly filed, effaces the defect in the original return and stands on the same footing as if the claim or correction made therein had been originally included.