1 PACHBADRA.
2 Trade::
3 gales and issues of salt.
4 Quantities of salt sold.
5 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
6 An abstract account of the salt made, stored, and sold and
7 issued free of price and duty in the past two years is given
8 below :—
9 1897-98. 1898-99.
10 Mads, Mds,
11 Opening balance of stock 3,64,292 2,565,183
12 Quantity of salt stored including excesses and deduct-
13 ing deficits discovered in heaps cleared . eee ©4,96,718 7,72,303
14 . Total eae "8,61,010 10,27,486
15 Quantity of salé sold ase aes tee 694,827 "7,70,574
16 Salt issued free of both price and duty... ve =—s:11,000 11,000
17 Total se "6,085,827 7,381,574
18 Closing stock balance eee ee ves °2,56,183 "2,45,012
19 ey
20 The increase in the quantity of stock purchased was neces-
21 sary to meet the expansion of the trade. The salt obtained
22 was white and of very superior quality. Payments to manu-
23 facturers during the year aggregated Rs, 48,412, compared
24 with Rs. 30,977 during 1897-98. 'The salt is issued in as fresh
25 a condition as possible to the trade, and the stocks are there-
26 fore kept low. Adding salt which has just been extracted, but
27 had not been paid for, to the registered stock balance, there
28 were actually about 54 lakhs of maunds of salt available at
29 the close of the year—a quantity sufficient to meet all demands.
30 19. The sale price of Pachbadra salt was one anna and six
31 pies a maund from the Ist April to the 13th December 1898,
32 and one anna and three pies a maund from the 14th December
33 1898 to the close of the year. An additional charge of three
34 pies a maund is levied on all salt indented for by traders under
35 the through traffic system, to meet the cost of bagging and
36 clearance by departmental agency. The sales of salt at the
37 source during the past two years were as follows :—
38 Full duty-paid salt ga ae ngs
39 Through traffic sales oe wee 847,754 541,496 + 1,938,742
40 Ordinary trade ... nes we 77,078 59,078 — 17,995
41 Total ven 4,24,827 6,00,574 - 1,75,747
42 Duty free salt sold to the Jochpur Darbér 1,70,000 1,70,000 ies
43 Grand Total of Sales oe 594,827 7,70,574 + 1,75,747
44 About nine-tenths of the quantity of salt sold on payment
45 of full duty—the whole, in fact, of the salt removed by railway
46 from this source—was sold on through traffic indents.
47 The increase in the duty-paid trade of the source has been
48 mainly due to the reduction in the price charged during the
49 latter part of the year, and to a reduction of five pies a maund
50 in the freight rates on the section of the Jodhpur-Bikaner
51 Railway from Pachbadra to Kuchaman Road on the Sdmbhar
52 Lake, with effect from the 1st January 1899. These reduc-
53 tions in cost aggregate eight pies a maund; but Pachbadra
54 salt remains dearer than Sdmbhar salt by one anna a maund
55 at the Kuchaman Road Station. The quality of the salt now
56 produced at Pachbadra is, however, so good that, notwithstand-
57 ing this difference in cost, Pachbadra salt has competed suc-
58 cessfully with salt from Sdmbhar in several districts of the
59 « North-Western Provinces, and also in Central India and Rd4j-
60 puténa. The falling off in the quality of Simbhar salt, which
61 has occurred owing to the recent unfavourable seasons, has
62 contributed to this result ; and with good seasons the Lake
63 salt will probably recover some if not all of the lost ground.
64 (14 )