The Planning Commission’s proposal made to the State Governments to control urban incomes during the Third Plan period is downright vicious. The Commission suggests that the State Governments should assess urban properties and slap a tax on them in addition to the crippling taxes already in existence, presumably to reduce disparities in incomes. Whatever the shape of legislation that will be forged by the State Governments to achieve this end, it will undoubtedly open new avenues of corruption. Landlords are bound to resort to sharp practices to have their properties under-assessed and the assessors themselves will be exposed to irresistible temptations which in the end will defeat the spirit of the Commission’s proposal. Aside from the speculative forces that will be released, the implementation of this proposal is bound to bring all building activity in the private sector to a standstill. If the Planning Commission is under the impression that this vindictive measure against the urban property owner will in some way assuage heartburns among the victims of the land reform laws it is plainly mistaken. The proposal is clearly discriminatory against a class of people by reason of the fact that it is not proposed to place any ceiling on the incomes of doctors, lawyers and others. It is true that the benefits of the First and the Second Plans have not seeped down to the grassroots level as it was hoped. That is surely not because there has been no ceiling on urban incomes. The reason is that the Planning Commission failed to plan in a manner that would have ensured the benefits of the Plans reaching the common people. It is to be hoped that the State Governments will have the courage to draw the line somewhere and resist the encroachment of the Planning Commission into spheres where it can only be of nuisance value and nothing else.
27th December, 1960.
