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3 SALT REVENUE DEPARTMENT FOR THE OFFICIAL YEAR 190251903.
4 72 pits were opened for extraction at the beginning of the PACHBADRA,
5 manufacturing season in the expectation that the yield from ‘
6 them would be sufficient to meet trade demands until the
7 commencement of manufacture in 1903-04. In consequence,
8 however, partly of the prolonged drought and partly of the
9 heavy strain placed on the source in the two preceding years,
10 which necessitated the selection of pits in which the salt had
11 not had sufficient time to form, the actual outturn was found
12 to be on an average about 5,000 maunds only. Arrangements
13 - were therefore made after the close of the year under report
14 to open 20 more pits before the monsoon of 1903, or g2 in
15 all, -The account in Appendix V shows that maunds 9,78,128 °
16 of salt were added to stock, and that the year closed with a
17 minus stock balance of maunds 249. As explained in the
18 Report of 1go1-02, stock is credited only when pits have
19 been completely emptied and the produce has been stored
20 and estimated by measurement; and when salt is sold from
21 pits under extraction, additions to stock are made after the
22 whole of the outturn has been disposed of. A large number
23 of pits were under exttaction when the year closed, and under
24 the above conditions the reason for the minus balance will be
25 understood. The-salt in hand when extraction has been
26 completed will be sufficient to meet the requirements of the
27 trade until manufacture can be resumed after the cessation of
28 the monsoon of 1903.
29 Al. Dawn torthe present time a uniform rate of one Alteration in the rate of
30 ; purchase of salt from
31 anna a maund has been paid for all salt purchased from the manufacturers.
32 the Kharwals of the Pachbadra Source. There has
33 consequently been no incentive to individual manufacturers
34 to produce salt of a quality superior to that just accept-
35 able by the Department, and apart from the effect of
36 deficient rainfall the result has been a tendency to level
37 down the quality of the salt produced at the source.
38 In these circumstances I have arranged after careful consi-
39 deration to introduce, with effect from the manufacturing
40 season following the monsoon of 1903, a system of purchase
41 at varying rates with the object of encouraging the produc-
42 tion of first class salt. * For salt of good average quality the
43 rate of purchase, will if future be one anna a maund; and
44 for salt of markedly superior quality a further sum of three
45 pies a maund will be paid as a bonus to the manufacturer.
46 For salt which is inferior to the average, but which is
47 good enough to be accepted by the Department, only nine
48 pies a maund will be given: provided that, if the inferior
49 quality of the salt is due to circumstances beyond the con-
50 trol of the owner of a pit, the existing rate of purchase
51 of one anna a maund will be maintained. Payments at
52 these varying rates will be so arranged that the average
53 price of salt purchased in any one season shall approxi-
54 mate as nearly as possible to one annaamaund. There
55 are pits inthe tract which are not capable of producing
56 first class salt, but, generally speaking, the quality of the
57 salt produced at Pachbadra depends greatly upon the care and
58 attention bestowed upon a pit by a manufacturer. The rates
59 laid down will give the honest worker an opportunity of adding
60 to his earnings, while the owners of pits which are not capable
61 of producing first class salt will receive payment for their
62 salt at the former rate, viz., one anna a maund, provided that
63 they supply the best salt that their pits are capable of yielding.
64 The only persons who will be affected adversely will be
65 (17)