1 (87)
2 Government Revenue, complain that their Revenues have been reduced
3 one-half. A Jagheer, of which the valuation, as recorded some years
4 back, was, say Rupees 5,000 or £500, is now assessed at Rupees 3,000
5 or £300—there are hundreds, and even thousands of such instances, ,
6 the subjects of common conversatiou; and by this sure standard the
7 general reduction throughout the British Territory may be measured.
8 This well known fact would alone, independent of all the other proofs,
9 suffice to prove the great reduction’ of fiscal burden effected by the
10 British Government in the Punjab, which has indeed been the pro-
11 minent characteristic of our Revenue Administration.
12 44 For this beneficent end there has been a considerable sacrifice of
13 Revenue; but this has been partially compensated
14 Lapses and resump- : y
15 tion make up for reduc- for by-the resumption of Jagheers at Annexation,
16 Hone eos and by the lapse of fiefs and jageers and petty
17 tenures since that time. These lapses have nearly sufficed to make up
18 for the reductions subsequent to Annexation, so that the Land Tax has not
19 materially fallen off since Annexation. There has, however, after allowing
20 for all these sets off, been a net sacrifice of at least half a million sterling, ~
21 this sum being (at the least) the difference between the Land Tax of the
22 Sikhs and the Land Tax of the British. But since Annexation the lapses
23 and resumptions kave balanced the reductions of assessment; for, as
24 regards actual realization, the tax yielded Rupees 1,59,40,722 or
25 £1,594,072, for 1850-51, the highest year, and during the last year,
26 1855-56, it has still yielded Rupees 1,50,00,650 or £1,500,065. In this
27 respect the policy of the Sikh Government was to tax heavily the agri-
28 culturists, and to make large assignments of Revenue to the nobility as
29 payment for service and support. But the policy of the British Govern-
30 ment is to tax lightly the agriculturists, to pay its servants from its own
31 _ Treasury, to excuse the native nobility from service, and to gradually
32 reduce their assignments of Revenue.
33 45. But while on the one hand every ecsititlevation has certainly ©
34 Reasons for reduction been shown to the tax-payers, on the other hand
35 of Land Tax, there has been no causeless sacrifice of the resources
36 of the State; for there are weighty reasons to show that high money
37 assessments could not be maintained in the Punjab. In former Reports
38 it has been seen that the sudden pacification of the Province after
39 Annexation, the cessation of Military and Political employment, which
40 ‘occupied many thousands of persons and caused money to circulate in