z:\ ambedkar\vol-02\vol2-10.indd MK SJ+YS 21-9-2013/YS-8-11-2013 771
EVIDENCE : RIGHT HON. SIR SAMUEL HOARE AND OTHERS 771
where definitely it is said : “Imposition and administration of taxes on income other than agricultural income or the income of corporations, but subject to the power of the provinces to impose surcharges” under the exclusively Federal heads.
Lord Eustace Percy: I do not think that exhausts it because all the evidence we have received, and all the evidence I ever heard in India was violently opposed to Provincial surcharges.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: That was the view of the business people, I am sure.
Lord Eustace Percy: It was the opinion of every single Indian to whom I had the opportunity of putting questions.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: No, indeed, they were not.
- Lord Rankeillour: May I ask a question arising out of Dr. Ambedkar’s. I think it is of some importance. With regard to the consent of the GovernorGeneral, surely all Federal taxation will be subject to the consent of the Governor-General. It can only be on his initiation, and a resolution such as we have here, that any tax can be considered ?
Sir Samuel Hoare: Yes, but I think Lord Rankeillour really is confusing the two positions. There is the general constitutional position under which money votes originate with the initiative of the Crown. That position, of course, stands. I was contemplating the other position in which the GovernorGeneral intervenes under some special obligation in the Indian Constitution.
- Lord Rankeillour: I felt sure that was the meaning, but the actual answer given to Dr. Ambedkar would seem to suggest that under paragraph
141 the Federal Legislature would have the power to act without the Governor-General’s previous recommendation.
Mr. M. R. Jayakar: May I ask Lord Rankeillour’s attention to Proposal
45, which deals with this question. “A recommendation of the GovernorGeneral will be required for any proposal in either Chamber of the Federal Legislature for the imposition of taxation.”
Lord Rankeillour: Yes, so I thought. I quite agree.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: That relates to the special power of the GovernorGeneral, and that is made so because the taxes contemplated in paragraph
138 are not to go to the Central fisc, but they are to be distributed amongst the Provinces.
†8575. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: My Lord Chairman, may I just intervene for a moment for the purpose of asking for information, not for raising any controversy. The Committee knows that there is a certain amount of difference of opinion on the expression “existing and accruing rights”. The Civil Service takes one view, the Law Officers of the Crown take another view, and I believe this Committee will have to give some sort of opinion
†Minutes of Evidence, Vol II-B, 28th July 1933, p. 1010.