Best judgment assessment requires unreliable accounts, not merely missing stock records or manufacturing accounts.

Best judgment assessment under sales tax law is attracted only where accounts are not maintained as required, are not in accordance with statutory requirements, or are so unreliable that proper assessment cannot be made on that basis. Mere absence of a stock register, stock list or manufacturing account does not, by itself, justify rejection of accounts or best judgment assessment unless the authority finds the accounting method unreliable and unsuitable for assessment. Even after rejecting accounts, the estimate must rest on a rational basis with a reasonable nexus to turnover.

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Issues: Whether the non-maintenance of stock register, non-submission of stock list and non-maintenance of manufacturing account, by itself, justified best judgment assessment under the sales tax law.

Analysis: Best judgment assessment under section 18(4) is attracted only when the dealer has not maintained accounts, or the accounts are not in accordance with the statutory requirements, or the method of accounting is such that assessment cannot properly be made on that basis. No rule or regulation shown to be in force made maintenance of a stock register, stock list or manufacturing account obligatory in the form contended for. Mere absence of those records, without a finding that the method of accounting was thereby rendered unreliable or that assessment could not properly be made on that basis, was insufficient. After rejection of accounts, the assessing authority must still base the estimate on a rational foundation having reasonable nexus with the turnover determined.

Conclusion: The non-maintenance of stock register, non-submission of stock list and non-maintenance of manufacturing account, by themselves, did not justify best judgment assessment.

Ratio Decidendi: Best judgment assessment cannot rest on mere non-maintenance of particular records unless the authority finds that the assessee's method of accounting is thereby unreliable and unsuitable for proper assessment, with the estimate founded on a rational basis.

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