Cotton excise duty

IT was inevitable that the failure of the Finance Member to propose the repeal or even a substantial curtailment of the cotton excise duty even in a year of fat surplus should be made a subject of bitter and loud complaint during the budget discussion. We have no means of knowing at the time of writing what particular line of defence or apology the Finance Member has adopted or will adopt in this case. What we do know is that there is no sadder or more disgraceful chapter in the whole of India’s economic history than that which deals with the imposition and the maintenance of this obnoxious duty. Not only is it repugnant to and utterly subversive of all our accepted notions of the duty of the State with regard to indigenous industries, but it is undeniable that both the imposition of the tax and its subsequent maintenance have been determined solely by a regard for the interests of Lancashire or, what is the same thing, by a desire not to displease her. Not only Indian opinion but a substantial section even of Anglo-Indian opinion has again and again condemned the duty, and the government itself, so far from being able to put forward even a plausible defence of it, stands practically committed to the policy of repealing this duty as soon as financial conditions permit its repeal. The postponement of a much-needed step on such a pretext, bad in all cases, is particularly indefensible in this case, because even in the matter of its revenue, the government would clearly gain far more ultimately than it would lose by the repeal.