One prices an asset, the other totals assets minus liabilities
Two documents answer two different questions. A valuation report asserts a number for one identified thing on one date: a flat, a plant, a block of shares. A net worth certificate asserts a residue, being what survives once everything owed is set against everything owned on that date. One is an opinion about a single asset's worth; the other is an arithmetic position across a person or an entity, in which any single asset is one line.
and stops there. Nothing in it says what the holder owes, or what else they own.
- The same flat one line
- Bank and deposit balances
- Shares, mutual funds and other holdings
- Other property, vehicles and receivables
The gap in scope is the whole of it. The question in the title is really a question about which of those two things an acceptor asked for, and most of the confusion comes from the word "certificate" being used for both. A valuer's document is a report of an opinion; a chartered accountant's net worth document is a certificate of a figure drawn from records. Each is the wrong answer to the other's question.
A lender wants the flat priced and the borrower's overall position stated, so both documents arrive together and both carry a figure for the same flat. The two figures rarely match, and neither of them is wrong: one is a valuer's opinion of what the flat would fetch, the other a documented value the certifying accountant can evidence. The methods section below explains why.
Registered valuers, merchant bankers and CAs: who signs what
Eligibility to sign is set by the document, and by the asset or the computation behind it, rather than by qualification alone. Three signatories cover the ground, and each one's authority comes from a different place.
Registered valuer
Signs Companies Act valuations
- For what
- Any valuation the Companies Act itself calls for. Section 247 names the registered valuer rather than a profession, and the valuer registers for a class of asset, with the class shown against each name on the public register kept by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India.
- Set by
- Section 247 and the valuer rules made under it. The Companies (Registered Valuers and Valuation) Rules, 2017 took effect on 18 October 2017 and set three asset classes: land and building, plant and machinery, and securities or financial assets.
Merchant banker
Signs tax share valuations by method
- For what
- Income tax runs a separate track with a separate signatory. The income-tax rules say who may determine the fair market value of unquoted shares under which method, and for some methods the answer is a merchant banker registered with SEBI, not an accountant.
- Set by
- The income-tax rules.
Chartered accountant in practice
Signs the net worth certificate
- For what
- A net worth statement is a financial statement, and no registration regime reserves it. A member in practice attests it as a figure drawn from records, with the identifiers an acceptor checks printed on it. A member who is also a registered valuer may sign valuation reports in that class, and only in that class.
- Set by
- The practising member's own licence to attest financial statements, and the acceptor's checklist that names a chartered accountant.
None of that touches the net worth statement itself. A chartered accountant attests one because it is a financial statement, and the boundary between the three institutes runs on that word rather than on an asset class. Where a request letter asks instead for the fair market value of unquoted shares for a tax computation, the document is a fair market value certificate, prepared by whichever signatory the rules name for the method the computation uses, and it is neither a Companies Act valuation nor a net worth certificate.
If the letter says "fair market value"
Send us the request and the shareholding or asset it concerns, and a CA tells you which computation it needs and who may sign it before any work starts.
Or call +91 945 945 6700, Monday to Saturday, 9 AM to 6 PM.
The methods behind a valuation report and a net worth statement
Method is why the two numbers differ, and the difference is not an error in either document. A valuer chooses between approaches rather than applying one formula, and the choice turns on the asset, on the data available and on the purpose of the exercise.
Three approaches, one chosen for each engagement and stated in the report.
A certified net worth figure is not modelled at all. Each line rests on a document, and where a market figure is needed for a property or an unlisted holding, it is brought in from a report rather than formed on the spot. One document produces a number; the other collects numbers produced elsewhere and nets them.
- Bank balancesthe statement balance on the date certified
- Listed shares and fundsthe demat holding and the closing price on that date
- Propertythe registered deed, and the stamp duty value or a valuer's report, brought in and referred to
- Unlisted sharesaudited accounts, or a valuation report where the acceptor asks for one
- Loans and overdraftsthe lender's account confirmation
- Receivables and other assetsthe ledger and the record behind it
So the same flat can carry two defensible figures, and neither is a challenge to the other. The books against the certificate is a separate distinction again, and what an asset would fetch, its fair market value, meaning the price a willing buyer would pay a willing seller at arm's length on the date, is the idea both documents circle, with the net worth certificate never having to form it.
One other document is confused with both and is neither. An actuarial valuation of gratuity or leave liabilities under the employee-benefit accounting standards is an actuary's estimate of a future obligation. It values no asset and totals no position, and it is not covered in this guide.
Where Rule 11UA and Section 247 come into the picture
Two citations appear in almost every request letter, and only one of them still reads the way it used to.
Section 247, Companies Act 2013
Still reads as it didIt applies whenever the Companies Act itself calls for a valuation, and it names the registered valuer rather than a profession. Three kinds of file bring it in:
- a preferential issue of shares, priced on a registered valuer's report;
- a scheme of compromise or arrangement, which travels with one;
- an insolvency process, where the resolution professional appoints registered valuers so that no single opinion sets the value.
Rule 11UA, Income-tax Rules
Has movedIt sat in the Income-tax Rules 1962 and carried the fair market value machinery for unquoted shares. The Income-tax Act 2025 is in force from 1 April 2026, and the rules made under it carry the same ground under new numbers. The fair market value of unquoted shares now sits in Rule 57 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (formerly Rule 11UA), by the net asset value method.
One large use of the old rule has gone as well. The charge on shares issued above fair market value, commonly called angel tax, was withdrawn with effect from assessment year 2025-26.
The computation itself, method by method, is the subject of our separate guide to Rule 11UA and unlisted share valuation. This article stops at the question that comes before it: which document the citation in your letter points to.
Situations that demand a valuation report instead
Some files need a valuer and nothing else will do. A statement of the holder's overall position answers none of them, because none of them asks what the holder is worth.
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Anything that moves sharesShare issues and transfersA preferential allotment, a funding round, a transfer between related parties, an employee stock option allotment: each needs a number attached to the shares themselves.Valuation report
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Assets pledged or realisedSecurity, insolvency and restructuringA lender funding against property wants the property priced. An insolvency process wants fair value and liquidation value of the debtor's assets. A restructuring wants the assets and the business valued before creditors vote.Valuation report
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Court filesMatrimonial and partition mattersThe disputed property is valued and each side's position is stated, as separate documents by separate signatories. Ordering one and hoping it covers the other loses time in a forum with little patience for it.Both documents
Can a CA issue a valuation certificate?
Yes, in one class of asset, and only with a registration standing behind it.
A chartered accountant who has registered as a valuer in the securities or financial assets class signs reports in that class like any other registered valuer. The registration carries the report, not the membership. A member without it stands outside the Section 247 regime, and a report signed anyway is refused at the filing stage rather than argued about afterwards. A chartered accountant can register in the securities or financial assets class with three years' experience, after the registered valuers organisation's course and the valuation examination. The land and building and the plant and machinery classes call for engineering or architecture qualifications instead.
Outside that class a practising member still signs a great deal that touches value. A net worth statement carrying a property at a valuer's figure is signed by the member, with the valuer's report annexed and referred to. Certificates of utilisation, of share capital and of asset cover work the same way. In each the member certifies a fact drawn from records and from a third party's opinion.
Certifies a record
The property is carried at the amount stated, as per the annexed report of a named registered valuer, dated as shown.
The member has certified what the records and the annexed report say. That is the net worth certificate's own register, and no valuer registration is needed for it.
Expresses an opinion
The property is worth the amount stated.
The member has formed a value, which is a valuation opinion. The question then becomes whether a registration stood behind it, and a letter that wanted a record now holds something else.
Wording is what keeps the two apart, and it is worth reading on any certificate before it leaves the office. The first sentence can sit on a net worth certificate; the second belongs in a valuation report, with a registered valuer's name on it.
Verdict: pick the document your acceptor named in writing
The verdict is short, and it is not a preference between the two documents. Read the request letter literally, and read it before ordering anything.
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valuationvaluerfair market valueA valuation report is wantedSend a certified position instead and it comes back unread: it prices nothing.
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net worthfinancial positionassets less liabilitiesA net worth certificate is wantedSend a valuer's report instead and it answers one thing and says nothing about the rest.
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a sectiona rulea regulationThe provision decidesWhere the letter names a statutory provision, the provision fixes both the document and the signer, and preference does not enter it.
- A lending file with property securityThe flat is priced by a valuer; the borrower's overall position is certified by a chartered accountant.
- A promoter filingA project or a shareholding is valued, and the promoter's position is stated, as two documents.
- A court matter over a disputed assetThe asset is valued; each side's position is certified; separate signatories, separate filings.
Both are needed more often than people expect. Ordering them in one go avoids finding the gap at the filing counter.
Where the net worth side is the one required, the request usually names a purpose rather than a document, and the document behind it is a net worth certificate signed by a CA, written to the date and the reader the request names. Matching purpose to document is then the first decision, and which certificate answers which purpose does that sorting. Where the request is genuinely about what one asset is worth, this is the wrong shelf, and a registered valuer in the right class is the right one.