Acme India Industries: lender statements repeatedly differed from books

Acme India Industries Limited disclosed repeated differences between quarterly current-asset statements submitted to working-capital lenders and its unaudited books from June 2023 to March 2026. The largest stated difference was Rs 97.38 crore for trade receivables at March 31, 2025, with Acme India Industries citing unbilled revenue, retention money, statement cut-offs and subsequent adjustments.

Why did Acme India Industries’ lender statements differ from its books?

Acme India Industries said the differences arose from category classifications, reporting dates and later adjustments rather than from one stated common reason. The quarterly returns were supplied to banks or financial institutions that had sanctioned aggregate working-capital limits above Rs 5 crore against current assets. The reported categories were trade receivables, inventory and security deposits.

For FY 2025-26, Acme India Industries said unbilled amounts were shown under security deposits in stock statements submitted to banks. At June 30, 2025, lender statements showed trade receivables of Rs 128.24 crore, compared with Rs 161.37 crore in unaudited books, a negative difference of Rs 33.13 crore. Security deposits were Rs 37.93 crore in lender statements and Rs 7.49 crore in the books, a positive difference of Rs 30.44 crore.

The company’s accounting policy provides the stated basis for recognising unbilled revenue. Acme India Industries recognises unbilled revenue for goods sold or services rendered when billing has not been raised by the reporting date, provided significant risks and rewards have transferred, or services have been performed, and collection is not significantly uncertain. The policy records unbilled revenue at transaction value after applicable returns, allowances, trade discounts and volume rebates, but it does not prescribe the lender-statement category.

How large were Acme India Industries’ reported differences across three years?

Acme India Industries’ largest disclosed gap was the Rs 97.38 crore trade-receivable difference at March 31, 2025, while its largest FY 2025-26 difference was Rs 54.72 crore for security deposits at December 31, 2025. FY 2023-24 had differences up to Rs 13.19 crore, FY 2024-25 contained the largest receivables gap, and FY 2025-26 had larger variations in security deposits.

The signs in the disclosure show whether the lender-statement figure was above or below the book figure. At March 31, 2026, trade receivables were Rs 245.73 crore in statements provided to ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Bank, against Rs 225.98 crore in unaudited books, a positive difference of Rs 19.75 crore. Inventory was closer at Rs 28.09 crore in lender statements and Rs 28.54 crore in books, a negative difference of Rs 44.76 lakh.

The FY 2024-25 disclosure contains a conflicting lender trade-receivables figure for March 31, 2025. The auditor table reports Rs 84.84 crore to lenders, which mathematically produces the stated negative Rs 97.38 crore difference against Rs 182.22 crore in books. A detailed explanatory table instead prints Rs 44.84 crore as the lender amount while retaining the same Rs 97.38 crore difference; Acme India Industries did not explain that inconsistency in the supplied disclosure.

What reasons did Acme India Industries give for receivables and deposits?

Acme India Industries attributed the largest FY 2025-26 security-deposit differences to retention money withheld by customers against running bills and grouped under security deposits in lender statements. At September 30, 2025, security deposits were Rs 52.53 crore in lender statements and Rs 8.75 crore in unaudited books, creating a positive difference of Rs 43.78 crore. At December 31, 2025, the figures were Rs 64.50 crore and Rs 9.78 crore, respectively.

For FY 2024-25, Acme India Industries gave a different explanation for security deposits: the drawing-power statement included deposits with a one-year term only. This was linked to negative differences of Rs 4.72 crore at June 30, 2024 and Rs 3.54 crore at September 30, 2024. At December 31, 2024, the lender figure exceeded the book figure by Rs 5.22 crore; the disclosure does not identify the individual deposits included or excluded.

For trade receivables, Acme India Industries cited unbilled revenue and earlier reporting cut-offs. It said the March 2025 statement reflected sales as of March 30, 2025 and included an unbilled-revenue explanation, while the September 2024 drawing-power statement used debtors as of September 27, 2024. In FY 2023-24, the company cited liquidated-damages deductions by Indian Railways for the Rs 74.50 lakh difference at June 30, 2023 and the Rs 13.19 crore difference at March 31, 2024.

What does the inventory comparison show about reporting dates?

Acme India Industries’ inventory amounts matched its unaudited books in several interim lender statements, but year-end figures differed when statements and books reflected different dates or later movements. In the detailed FY 2025-26 disclosure, inventory was Rs 27.03 crore at June 30, 2025, Rs 28.74 crore at September 30, 2025 and Rs 31.49 crore at December 31, 2025 in both lender statements and the unaudited books.

At March 31, 2026, Acme India Industries said the bank statement had been generated on March 30. It attributed the Rs 44.76 lakh inventory difference to raw materials consumed in production or finished goods dispatched for sale on the financial year’s final day. This explanation ties the difference to activity after the lender statement was extracted rather than to a stated classification change.

The March 2025 inventory difference was substantially larger but was not assigned a reason in the detailed explanation table. Lender statements showed Rs 26.79 crore, compared with Rs 9.15 crore in unaudited books, a positive difference of Rs 17.64 crore. In FY 2023-24, inventory matched in the June, September and December quarterly rows, but at March 31, 2024 lender statements showed Rs 9.47 crore versus Rs 8.13 crore in books, a negative difference of Rs 1.34 crore that was described as provisional.

Conclusion

The disclosures show that Acme India Industries’ lender submissions and unaudited books did not consistently classify or measure receivables, inventory and security deposits on the same basis. The Rs 97.38 crore March 2025 receivables difference and Rs 54.72 crore December 2025 security-deposit difference were the largest stated examples, with the company linking the gaps to unbilled revenue, retention money, deposit eligibility, provisional figures and reporting-date cut-offs.

The next disclosed test is whether later quarterly lender statements align more closely with the books and whether Acme India Industries resolves the conflicting March 2025 lender receivables figure of Rs 44.84 crore versus Rs 84.84 crore. The company also states that its Tally accounting software operated with an audit-trail feature throughout FY 2025-26 and that edit logs were preserved, establishing a disclosed mechanism for recording book changes and adjustments.