Cotton excise ordinance

WE now know why the cotton excise duty was not suspended two and a half months ago when both the mill owners of Bombay and the Indian Legislative Assembly asked for its suspension, and why the ordinance suspending it has only been issued now. That is to say we know the reasons as stated in the Statement of Objects and Reasons accompanying the ordinance. The action was not taken earlier because, as stated on behalf of the government during the debate on the subject in the Legislative Assembly in September, suspension must be followed immediately by abolition, and it was then too early to form a reliable estimate of the financial position in the next year. It has been taken now because “the final results of the monsoon are now known” and “on such information as is now before it, the Government of India is satisfied that there would be no serious risk of a large deficit in the current year if the cotton excise duty were suspended for the rest of the year and that there is a reasonable prospect that the budget for the next year can be balanced without assistance from the cotton excise duty in the absence of any big change for the worse in the next few months”. As a statement of the reason for the delay, this may or may not be convincing; but it certainly has a measure of plausibility. In any case, the Government of India having taken the entire responsibility for the delay on its own shoulders and kept the Secretary of State out of it, it is neither necessary nor desirable for the Indian public to go behind the official statement.