§ Sir JOHN BUTCHERasked the Secretary of State for India whether his recent raising of the limit of Income Tax in India from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 has reduced the Income Tax payers to 144,000, of whom at least 60,000 are Europeans; whether, after allowing for 227,000,000 of people engaged in agriculture and not liable to Income Tax, there remains over 500,000 persons who do not work for their livelihood; whether of this 500,000 only 642W 84,000 have incomes over Rs. 2,000 per annum; whether he is aware that the Government of Bombay, in connection with the municipal franchise, estimates that a rental qualification of Rs. 20 per month, which implies an income over Rs. 2,000 per annum, will yield 50,000 voters; whether the cities of Bombay and Calcutta alone contain a larger number of taxable Indians than the total of those who now pay Income Tax; and whether the evasion which appears to be occurring will be permitted in the future?
§ Mr. MONTAGUI have not been able to vertify all the figures or follow all the calculations set out in the question, but I know that the Government of India are carefully considering how they may best improve the machinery for assessing the Income Tax and for preventing evasions of it. I will bring the hon. Baronet's statistics and inferences to the notice of the Government of India.