It does not matter. Nobody is going to speak after me. This is a very vital issue and I have been fighting for the protection of municipalities and all other local bodies, and I feel it my duty to warn future parliamentarians to proceed very slowly and very cautiously in this matter and that they should not be guided by mere theory. The taxes from railway properties is an important source of revenue to the corporations, municipalities, district boards and union boards. Let this fact not be forgotten that grant of exemption will be a serious encroachment on the finances of these local self-governing institutions. That is one side. Now there is the other side. You have provided in the article-and of course, theoretically it is all right-you have provided in article 264 that Union property shall not be taxed. And in article 266 you have provided that income of the State shall not be taxed by Central Government. Of course, here is the principle of reciprocity which in vulgar language means, “You scratch my back, and I will scratch yours”. And in between these two arrangements the local self-governing institutions have to suffer. That is the whole point for consideration. In municipalities even the humanitarian the public institutions like orphanages, dispensaries, schools, temples, mosques, dharmisalas etc.-bodies that are not profit-earning institutions-are not exempt from local taxes. And as I said, no discrimination is shown in their favour even when they have not utilised any of the services offered by the municipality in any way. That is no consideration either for reduction of tax or exemption from it. That being so, it becomes a very dangerous thing to prescribe that Union property as such shall not be subject to taxes.
