1 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
2 the abolition of transit and other duties on salt, appear to be
3 properly debitable as charges incurred in the administration
4 of the salt revenue ; but the treaty payments cover also other
5 matters, such as the abolition of transit dues on all articles
6 of merchandize, the abolition of duties on saccharine prod-
7 uce, and the prohibition of the export of intoxicating drugs
8 into British territory. Deducting, on a rough estimate,
9 Rs. 2,25,350 on account of these latter items from the fixed
10 sum of Rs. 27,85,057 payable under the treaties, a balance of
11 Rs. 25,59,707 remains debitable to salt revenue ; and to this
12 the fluctuating item of royalty on the sales of Sdmbhar salt
13 has to be added. The actual payments on account of royalty
14 in 1898-99 amounted to Rg. 2,37,844, making a grand total of
15 Rs. 27,97,551.
16 The treaties permit the sale in Central India and Rajputana,
17 and indirectly also in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh
18 and Central Provinces, of full duty-paid salt from the Bombay
19 Presidency, in addition to the salt of this Department; and
20 apparently, therefore, a proportionate share of the payments.
21 under the treaties should in fairness be debited to the Bombay
22 Salt Department. In 1898-99 4,20,793 maunds of Bombay salt
23 were exported into Central India and Rajputdna, compared
24 with 7,48,790 maunds of full duty-paid salt booked to the
25 same area by this Department. Similarly, 5,65,779 maunds
26 of Bombay salt were exported to the North-Western Provinces
27 and Oudh during the year, and 17,07,342 maunds to the Central
28 Provinces and Berar as compared with 30,25,087 maunds of
29 R4jputéna salt booked in the same period to the North-
30 Western Provinces and Oudh, and 1,20,388 maunds to the
31 ‘Central Provinces and Berdr. If, therefore, the treaty
32 and royalty payments be distributed proportionately between
33 the two Departments in accordance with the quantities of
34 salt supplied from each to the areas for the benefit of which
35 the treaties were designed, the Bombay Salt Department
36 will be debited with Rs. 11,43,922 out of the Rs. 27,97,551 ;
37 and the balance, vzz. Rs. 16,53,629, will be debited to this
38 Department.
39 If this sum be added to the charges of this Department,
40 the incidence of charges on receipts for the year under report
41 amounts to 13°68 per cent.
42 It may, of course, be argued that although the treaties per-
43 mit the free passage of salt through Rajputana and the
44 Central India States to the Central Provinces, the whole of
45 the salt exported from the Bombay Presidency to the Central
46 Provinces and Berar should not be taken into account in
47 making this calculation, or that the Bombay Department
48 should be debited only with a share of those treaty payments
49 which were made to secure a free transit for our salt through
50 native territory or to provide for the consumption of our salt
51 within such territory; and that the payments (fixed and
52 royalty) made for the lease of the SAmbhar Lake and for the
53 other salt sources in Jodhpur, should be excluded. The lease
54 of these sources was, however, a necessary part of the adminis-
55 trative reforms which enabled the Government to equalize
56 the salt duties throughout India ; and, as an estimate, the share
57 of the charges which has been debited to the Bombay Depart-
58 ment may perhaps be accepted as sufficiently correct.
59 For the fixed payments under the treaties, sums payable,
60 and not sums paid, have been taken for the purpose of the
61 above calculation, as the amounts do not vary and are paid
62 (2)