DRAFT CONSTITUTION 793
of professions, trades, callings or employments shall be invalid on the ground that it relates to a tax on income.’ ”
Sir, it is proposed in a subsequent article to permit local authorities to levy certain taxes on professions, trades callings and employments up to a certain limit. It is feared that such a tax, if levied by the State, might be called in question on the ground that it amounts to a tax on income and being within the exclusive authority of the Centre. It is to prevent any such challenge to any law made for the purposes mentioned in sub-clause (1) that this provision has been deemed by the Drafting Committee to be very necessary, and accordingly I move this amendment.
Mr. President : Then Nos. 89 and 90 in the name of Mr. P. D. Himatsingka. He is not moving them. No. 91 in the name of Dr. Ambedkar.
The Honourabe Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I do not wish to move it.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I do not think that any very detailed reply is called for. The position is simply this, that in every Constitution the taxing resources of a State are generally distributed between the Centre and the States. The question of distributing the resources between the States and the local authorities is left to be done by law made by the State, because the local authority is purely a creation of the State. It has no plenary jurisdiction ; it is created for certain purposes ; it can be wound up by the State if those purposes are not properly carried out. This article, which I am proposing, is really an exception to the general rule that there ought to be no provision in a Constitution dealing with the financial resources of what are called local authorities which are subordinate to the State. But having regard to the fact that there are at present certain local authorities and their administration is dependent upon certain taxes which they have been levying and although those taxes have been contrary to the spirit of the Incometax law, the Drafting Committee, having taken into consideration the existing circumstances, is prepared to allow the existing state of affairs to continue. In fact exception was taken to the limit fixed by the Expert Committee which was Rs. 250. The proposal was that
- CAD, Vol. IX, dated 9th August 1949, p. 301.