I feel grateful that my honourable Friend Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru has raised a debate on the important point of the President’s power in regard to usurpation of provincial financial resources. It is like capital levy. It is like taking away by force what others possess. During the last Great War, the Nazis took away iron and metals from the householders not only in their own country but in conquered territories. Why should the Government of India, like the Nazis, expropriate the revenues assigned to the States in an emergency? I cannot understand it at all. Is it charity which the Centre has been giving to provinces, that it would take away that part of the revenue in times of emergency? I find the provinces derive substantial shares of revenue from income-tax and central taxes:
Orissa ……… 24 per cent.
Assam ………. 22 per cent.
Bihar ………. 20 per cent.
Bengal ………. 19 per cent.
U. P. ……….. 18 per cent.
Bombay ……….. 19 per cent.