§ 6. Mr. SNELLasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether any steps have been taken to carry out the recommendations made by the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, in paragraph 11 of their Report in 1919, relating to the levy of certain classes of taxation in India by executive action without, in some cases, any statutory limitation of the rates and in other cases any adequate prescription by Statute of the method of assessment; whether the same Committee's recommendation that the imposition of new burdens should be gradually brought more within the purview of the legislatures has been acted upon in any way in any part of India; and whether there have been public protests in any part of India against the impositions of additional burdens without the sanction of the Legislative Council concerned?
§ Mr. RICHARDSThe Government of Madras recently introduced a Bill in their Legislative Council on the lines of these recommendations of the Joint Select Committee, but it has been rejected. No such Bill has yet been introduced in any other province. I have no information of public protests of the kind mentioned at the end of the question. The Government of India will be asked for a report.