Take, for instance, the case of the province to which I have the honour to belong, viz., Bombay. Today Bombay is facing the prospect of heavy deficits in its budgets for some years to come at least; and at such a time, instead of affording more sources of revenue to them we are clamping restrictions on the sources already available to them. Now, the sales tax is the most important and perhaps the most elastic source of revenue, and if we affect the income from that source, how will they meet their deficits ? The provincial governments proposed that the provinces and the Centre should sit round a table, take stock of the whole situation and arrive at some arrangement for a more equitable distribution of the financial resources of the country and if there was not enough to go round, for a more equitable sharing of the financial difficulties.
