Ask the Constitution → Your rights, by who you are
Four protections matter most to anyone running a business: the right to trade at all, the right to trade across state lines, the rule that no tax exists without a law, and the promise that your property leaves your hands only by authority of law.
Descriptive, not legal advice · text as amended through the 106th Amendment (2023)
19(1)(g) protects the right to practice any profession or carry on any occupation, trade, or business. 19(6) lets the state impose reasonable restrictions, require qualifications, and even run state monopolies.
Trade, commerce, and intercourse throughout the territory of India shall be free. The Constitution's single-market clause.
The exception: states may tax goods from other states like their own and impose reasonable public-interest restrictions, with the President's sanction for new bills.
No tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law. Any tax demand without a statute behind it is unconstitutional.
The GST article: Parliament and states share power over goods and services tax, with the GST Council recommending rates.
The deep cut: taxes on professions and trades are capped by this article at 2,500 rupees per person per year. Your profession tax has a constitutional ceiling.
No person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law. Since 1978 this is a constitutional right rather than a fundamental right, so the route to court differs, but the protection stands.
Equality before the law includes protection against arbitrary state action, which is the ground on which businesses most often win against the government.