§ SIR DAVID WEDDERBURNasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it is the case that the Bombay Government, through its Legislative Council, has for local purposes imposed a tax on incomes of £5 a-year and upwards, while the Government of India 601 has raised the minimum of income assessable tinder the Income Tax, first from £20 a-year to £50, and subsequently to £75, and finally to £100?
MR. GRANT DUFFYes, Sir, it is true that a tax of the kind has been in operation for some months. It is a local or provincial impost for local and provincial purposes, levied under an Act for imposing duties on the rural non-agricultural classes, and intended to meet the criticism that taxation for provincial and local purposes was laid too exclusively upon the peasants and the land. Like all such imposts, it is merely tentative, and will of course be closely watched both on the spot and in this country.