Civil Disobedience in Indian Tradition, with Some Early Nineteenth Century Documents c6.s3.100

c6.s3.100

6. A tax on houses is certainly nothing less than novel in the general history of taxation. In this country it did not violate any acknowledged right of the natives, or offend any of their religious or civil usages. Some dissatisfaction will always be experienced from the operation of new taxes; but it is impossible, judging a priori, to foresee in what mode such dissatisfaction will manifest itself, or to what extent it may be carried. Considering the question in this point of view, the consequences, which arose from the tax on houses, were such as in our apprehension no human prudence could foresee, and such as may be again experienced from any measures, the tendency of which is to convert part of the private wealth of individuals into a public resource for the state. But your Hon'ble Court are both too enlightened and too equitable to judge of any arrangement of that nature merely from the event. We do not mean by these remarks, to question the propriety of the abrogation of the tax in question. On the contrary we think that it was wisely repealed, not because it infringed any established principle of taxation or violated any of those local usages, to which it is so essential to attend to in this country; but because the produce of it was not actually worth contending for through so much heat and irritation: It had only been estimated by the Committee of Finance at Rs.3,00,000 per annum and there were grounds to believe, that the net revenue would have even fallen short of that sum.