THE EVOLUTION OF PROVINCIAL FINANCE IN BRITISH INDIA - Page 147

132 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES

and in which from the nature of the case the supreme Central

Authority is least able to check the requirements of the local

authorities.”

The actual results, however, far surpassed these very moderate

hopes and were more than necessary to dispel the misgivings that

still lingered in the minds of those who looked upon the institution

of Provincial Finance as a project of doubtful utility. Confining

ourselves to the issues immediately affecting the Government of

India or the Provincial Governments, it was abundantly proved

that Provincial management was more economical than Imperial

management. If we compare the expenditure incurred upon the

services while they were an Imperial charge with the expenditure

on them after they were provincialized, the superior economy of

provincial management is overwhelmingly proved.

Year Total excess Expenditure on all Transferred Services except Registration over Total Receipts from them inclusive of all Contributions other than those for Bengal Famine under Imperial management Col3 Year Total excess Expenditure on all Transferred Services except Registration over Total Receipts from them inclusive of all Contributions other than those for Bengal Famine under Provincial management
1863-4 1864-5 1865-6 1867-8 1868-9 1869-70 1870-1 £ 5,111,297 5,606,248 5,587,779 5,821,438 6,030,214 5,856,310 5,197,250 1871-2 1872-3 1873-4 1874-5 1875-6Est. £ 4,835,238 4,964,407 5,329,180 5,379,509 5,135,677

Complied from an official volume of Notes on Imperial, Provincial and Local

Finance, 1876.

It was therefore with confirmed belief in its utility and even

with a sense of relief that the Government of India proceeded to

incorporate into the Provincial Budgets additional services local in

character or more amenable to local control. But these additions to

the incorporated services made the problem of a supply of funds

to Provincial Governments assume greater proportions. In the

first period the gap between the receipts of incorporated services

and the total charges for them was comparatively smaller than

what it was found to be the case on the present occasion. The

mode of bridging the gap entirely by assignments was deemed

to be ill-fitted for the success of the scheme in its enlarged form.

The most radical defect in the system of budget by assignment

consisted in its rigidity. The provinces did not favour it as a mode

of supply for the reason that while the outlay on the services under