State and Government in Ancient India c24.16

c24.16

There can be no doubt that ancient Indian political thinkers had evolved excellent principles for taxation. The grounds on which remissions were sanctioned and exemptions granted were also as a rule sound. All will agree that the state should gather the taxes like the bee, which sucks the honey without damaging the flower, that the trade and industry should be taxed not on gross earnings, but on net profits, that an article should not be taxed twice, that the rise in taxation, when inevitable, should be gradual, and so on. The principles of exemption were also sound. The dumb, the deaf, the blind and the widows were exempted from taxation, as they were usually poor. Students studying at the Gurukulas (educational institutions) were also given the same concession, as also teachers, if they were poor and imparting education free. These principles are well worth considering by a modern welfare state of the socialistic pattern.