1 Pricesat which salt was
2 sold at the sources.
3 Appendix II.
4 Reduction of the duty
5 on salt,
6 Rumours prevalent dur-
7 ing year of a reduc-
8 tion of duty,
9 <
10 REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NORTHERN INDIA
11 After the close of the year a revised table of treaty dues
12 payable to Native States in Rajputana and Ceptral India was
13 received from the Comptroller of India Treasuries, which
14 showed that the amount payable to the Jhalawar State had
15 been reduced from Rs. 7,250 to Rs. 2,750 under orders con-
16 tained in letter No. 263-1.A., dated the joth January 1899,
17 from the Government of India in the Foreign Department. A
18 copy of the letter of the Government of India was obtained
19 from the Comptroller, and from a perusal of the orders it
20 appears clear that the sum payable is Rs. 2,500 and not
21 Rs. 2,750. A reference on the subject has been made
22 to the Honourable the Agent to the Governor General, but
23 as Rs. 2,750 have been actually paid, an entry of that amount
24 has been made in the appendix.
25 There was no change in the prices at which salt was
26 sold to the public at the different sources, but 8,coo maunds
27 of salt were supplied from the Sambhar Lake at a price of
28 three annas a maund instead of the current rate of four annas
29 to the Sind Salt Department.
30 5. The duty on salt was reduced as follows with effect
31 from the 18th of March 1903 :—In the case of salt produced
32 from the mines in the Kohat District of the North-West Fron-
33 tier Province, from two rupees a Kohati maund of 102$f lbs.
34 to one rupee eight annas a British maund of 823 Ibs; in the
35 case of salt obtained from the mines of the Mandi State in
36 the Punjab, from seven annas and six pies to six annasa
37 British maund; in the case of all other salt dealt with by the
38 Department in the Punjab, Rajputana, the United Provinces
39 and Behar, from two rupees eight annas to two rupees a British
40 maund. The incidence ofthe reduction is one anna and 722?
41 pies a British maund on Kohat salt, one anna and six pies a
42 maund on Mandi salt and eight annas a maund on all other
43 salt. The reduction in the duty on Mandi salt did not take effect
44 until the 21st March 1903. The telegram announcing the
45 reduction was addressed by the Government of India to the
46 Government of the Punjab, and the copy of it, which was
47 forwarded to me by post, was not received until the 2oth
48 March 1903. Elsewhere the reduction in the duty took effect,
49 generally speaking, from the 18th March 1903. In some
50 instances, however, revenue at the higher rates of duty was
51 paid into treasuries before the receipt of the telegrams an-
52 nouncing reductions, and in all such cases the excess duty
53 paid is being refunded. The exact amount which has to
54 be refunded on this account is Rs. 6,069. The Govern
55 ment of India have also directed that the difference between
56 the old and new rates of duty shall be refunded on all salt
57 purchased but not cleared by the evening of the 17th March
58 1903, and which had not been distinctly offered for delivery
59 to the purchasers on or before that date.
60 6. Rumours were prevalent during the latter part of the
61 year that a reduction of salt duty was in contemplation.
62 Rumours of the kind towards the close of the financial
63 year are not infrequent, and inthe year under report they
64 gained possibly some additional strength from the speech
65 made by His Excellency the Viceroy at the Imperial
66 Darbar at Delhi on the 1st of January 1903, in which
67 he foreshadowed the possibility of the introduction of mea-
68 sures of relief from taxation, if the period of prosperity
69 into which the country had entered should continue. In the
70 early part of March the sales of salt from Sambhar in partie
71 ( 2.)