With regard to the amendment of my Friend Mr. Tyagi, I would like to say that I am in great sympathy with what he has said. There is no doubt about it that the sales tax when it began in 1937 was an insignificant source of revenue I have examined the figures so far as Bombay and Madras are concerned. The tax in the year 1937 in Madras was somewhere about Rs. 2.35 crores. Today it is very nearly Rs. 14 crores. With regard to Bombay the same is the situation, namely, that the tax about Rs. 3.5 crores in 1937 and today it is somewhere in the neighbourhood of Rs. 14 crores. This must be admitted as a very enormous increase and I do not think that it is desirable to play with the sales tax for the purpose of raising revenue for the simple reason that a taxation system can be altered on the basis, so far as I know, of two principles. One is the largest equity between the different classes. If one class is taxed more than another class it is justifiable to employ the taxation system to equalise the burden.
