In the matter of financial adjustments between Provinces and the centre I think that the Provinces have not been treated as well as they should be. In fact I have a feeling that in this matter the Provinces are worse off than in the days of the 1935 Act. The responsibilities of the Provinces, their commitments and their sphere for introducing ameliorative measures for the people are for greater than even those of the Centre and as such they should have been given sufficient scope in the field of taxation. As you are aware, Sir, in Bihar alone although we have the biggest steel factory not only in this country but at one time it was supposed to be the second biggest in the Empire, although our coal resources supply coal to the entire country, although our mica is perhaps the best exporting material, yet because the head offices of all these concerns happen to be either in Bombay or Calcutta the province itself gets very little out of them even by way of income tax. The other day we heard an Assam representative putting forth the same grievance. Considering what we are up against in the matter of our financial resources it would be necessary that this matter must form the subject of serious consideration between representatives of the Centre, the Provinces and the States.
