1 Salt sold and issued
2 to Native States free
3 of duty, free of price
4 and duty, and on pay-
5 ment of half duty.
6 Appendix III.
7 Deputations of off-
8 cers to inspect salt
9 works and salt tracts
10 in Native States.
11 RAJPUTANA SALT
12 SOURCES :
13 (1)
14 SAMBHAR.
15 Sales and issues.
16 Appendix I,
17 REPIRT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
18 the year compared with the previous year, but the quantity
19 actually issued was less by maunds 69,812., The reasons for
20 the falling off in clearances were the exhaustion of stocks and
21 poor quality of the salt made in the season 1899-1gG00 at
22 Sambhar and a block of traffic at Pachbadra, the Manager of
23 the Jodhpur-Bikanér Railway being unable to supply wagons
24 in sufficient numbers for the removal of the salt. There was
25 also an increase of maunds 48,799 in the sales of salt (Kohat
26 and Mandi) paying special rates of duty. The sales and
27 issues of salt at these sources vary but little. The increase
28 in sales during the year is due to the causes ascribed in para-
29 graph 1 for the increase in the gross revenue of the Depart-
30 ment.
31 to. The quantity of salt sold free of duty to the Jodhpur
32 State during the year amounted to maunds 1,34,002 only
33 compared with maunds 1,59,881 in 1899-1900 and maunds
34 2,21,784 in 1898-99. The quantity which the State is en-
35 titled to purchase free of duty under the agreement of 1879
36 is maunds 2,25,000, and the serious and continued fal'ing off
37 in the quantity purchased during the past two years is sad
38 evidence of the results produced by the famine in the State.
39 The Bikanér Darbar is entitled to receive a refund of half
40 the full duty paid on salt issued from the sources under the
41 management of the British Government for consumption with-
42 in the State up toa maximum quantity of maunds 20,000.
43 The quantity booked for consumption within the State during
44 the year was maunds 13,342 only compared with maunds
45 15,776 in 1899-1900 and maunds 20,222 in 1898-99. The
46 Darbar is permitted by the Salt Agreement of 1878 to manu-
47 facture for local consumption a maximum quantity of maunds
48 30,000 of salt at works of its own within the State, and the
49 half duty salt which the State imports supplements the local
50 supply. The salt works in the State at Lunkaransar are in
51 a prosperous condition, and the full quantity of salt permitied
52 by the Agreement is regularly manufactured. The arrange-
53 ments made by the Darbar to prevent the export of the local-
54 ly made salt into the Punjab are, however, efficient ; and ap-
55 parently none of it is allowed to cross the Punjab border,
56 The issues of salt free of price and duty call for no com-
57 ment. A running account of the issues is kept with the Iar-
58 bars, and any balance on account of previous years which
59 may be due is issued on application.
60 11. No offcers were deputed in 1g00 to visit the Native
61 States in Rajputana. The Political Officers, who were con-
62 sulted, were unanimous in their opinion that -deputations were
63 not advisable owing to the severe distress prevailing in the
64 hot weather of that year. Deputations were made in the
65 spring of the current calendar year, and the results will be re-
66 ferred to in the Administration Report for 1got-o2.
67 12. The salt in stock at Sambhar at the commence-
68 ment of the year was of very inferior quality, as the season of
69 1899-1900 had been unfavourable for manufacture. The
70 sales were, however, brisk in anticipation probably of a failure
71 in the supply, and the stock balance was at one time reduced
72 to maunds 1,00,058. The salt was so inferior that any en-
73 hancement of price to check the demand or divert it to other
74 sources was held to be inadvisable, and a policy of masterly
75 inactivity was accordingly adopted. About a month before
76 the salt made during the present season (1900-1go01) began
77 to be extracted, the sales fell off for a time; but in March
78 ig01 there was a rush on the new salt, and the total sales
79 (4)