Sir, I am glad that the draft of this article has been considerably improved and I certainly approve of the principle and the objective of the article. But there is one point which has to be examined in connection with this. It says: “any State which before the commencement of this Constitution was levying any tax or duty on the import of goods into the State from other States or on the export of goods from the State to other States”. Suppose some articles come to Bombay port and go straight to Rajasthan and there they are liable to land customs. Will it come under the definition of import of goods from other States into Rajasthan? It will be from outside India into Rajasthan. I think the present agreements include land customs even on such articles. Therefore I do not know if the words “to other States” and similarly “from other States” are necessary. They seem to be wholly unnecessary. We are only concerned with land customs on goods coming into the State or going out of the State. Where they go or where they come from, I do not think, are matters of importance so far as this particular object is concerned and as every thing is defined meticulously in the actual agreement I do not think we should put in words which are likely to give merchants room for evasion. Because things come from Bombay they will argue that they do not come from any State in India and that they come from outside and therefore they ought not to be assessable to land customs under the agreement. I want the Drafting Committee to look into the point and see they do no give any loophole for evasion. I hope I have made myself clear. My objection is to the words “from other States” and “to other States”, which are wholly unnecessary for the purpose of this clause and may be deleted and thereby close one loophole for litigation and evasion.
