Secondly, Sir, this power, if vested in the Union, to tax the properties of a State indiscriminately, would hamper the progress of the State. Taxation is always a double-edged weapon and it has a tremendous power to regulate the subject of taxation. Any tax on industries conducted by a State serves the purpose of discouraging the State from running any industry. The result would be to discourage the State from nationalizing public utility services and other industries. Some progressive States may have a well-defined scheme of social programme. You are destroying such social programe by adding one more obstacle to the innumerable obstacles already in existence.
