850 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
I do not want to say much more, but I do want to say that most of us are feeling very keenly that the Defence Budget is the greatest stumbling block in the path of the welfare of this country.
There is one other thing to which I would like to draw the attention of the Finance Minister. He has already indicated in the course of his Budget speech that the prospect for this country, so far as taxation is concerned in the future, is not a very happy one. He himself has admitted that our incometax revenue would not remain at the same level at which it has remained for the last two years. He knows very well that the export duty, which forms a very large part of the present revenue of the country, is no longer to be regarded as a permanent part of the revenue structure of this country. Export duties, which in all countries are of an unusual sort, extraordinary in their character, never can be regarded as a natural part of the tax structure of a country and depend upon conditions in foreign countries. The moment those conditions vary, you have got to vary the tax. You may meet with a situation where you may have to abandon such duties completely. The fear which I feel on account of the prospect in the decline of revenue is this : How is the Finance Minister going to make good the losses that might occur by the reduction of certain items on the revenue side ? Will he cut into the Defence Department’s Budget, or will he cut into the Budgets of the other Departments which are ministering to the social welfare of the people ? I have no idea. If the opinion in favour of the retention of the armed forces at the present level of expenditure prevails, our conditions, so far as the welfare of the people are concerned, will deteriorate considerably. I want the Finance Minister to take note of this fact and tell us something about what he would do when such a prospect presents itself to him in the concrete.