Mr President, Sir, with your permission I shall take only two or three minutes of the time of the House, and I shall confine my remarks only to the amendment moved by my honourable Friend, Mr. Das, regarding the liability of certain allowances to income-tax. The proposals before the House guarantee the Continuance of Rulers’ privy purses and their exemption from all taxes. The same immunity however is not extended to other allowances. The persons mainly affected by this are Rajmatas, widows of former rulers, who will enjoy their allowances for their life-time only. They will be hit very hard when they have their allowances reduced on account of deductions for income-tax and Super- tax. In the case of Maharanis and Ranis whose husbands are happily alive, the allowances will be exempt from income-tax as part and parcel of the Rulers’ privy purses, but should any of these ladies unfortunately become widows, their position, I believe, will still continue to be the same, viz., that they will get their allowances from their sons and those allowances will be exempt from income-tax as part and parcel of the privy purses of the rulers. Therefore, there will be some sort of discrimination between the allowances enjoyed by Maharanis and Ranis whose husbands are alive, and the Maharanis and Ranis who lost their husbands before the present Covenants were entered into. In my opinion, Sir, the allowances of these royal ladies are not comparable to salaries. These are maintenance allowances. These ladies have lived in luxury and comfort in the past. They will now find their allowances reduced very radically on account of deductions of income-tax. The House is aware that even the allowances of the President. and the Governors and certain their dignitaries are going to be exempt from tax. Only their salaries are liable to tax, not the allowances.
