118 



way whatever. There is no other article in India answering 

 this description upon which any tax is levied. It appears to 

 be the only one which at present in that country can occupy 

 the place which is held in our own fiscal system by the great 

 articles of consumption from which a large part of the impe- 

 rial revenue is derived. I am of opinion that the salt tax in 

 India must continue to be regarded as a legitimate important 

 branch of the public revenue. It is the duty, however, of the 

 Government to see that such taxes are not so heavy as to 

 bear unjustly on the poor by amounting to a large percentage 

 on their necessary expenditure." That the poorer classes 

 should contribute their quota to the revenue of the country 

 may be fully admitted, but the Salt tax is about the worst 

 means which can be employed to draw contributions from 

 them, and nothing but the direst necessity can, in a country 

 like India, justify resort to taxation of this kind. The tax, 

 taking the consumption per head in this Presidency at 16 lb. 

 per annum, amounts to from 2^ to 5 per cent, of the income 

 of a poor family, which is barely sufficient in many cases for 

 subsistence. The diet of the poorer classes is such that they 

 have to use a much larger quantity of salt than the richer 

 classes who use considerable quantities of sugar and of vege- 

 tables containing salt. It has been calculated that the quantity 

 of salt required by a labouring man in this Presidency is 

 double the quantity required by a labouring man in Northern 

 India, part of whose diet consists of wheat ; and the equal- 

 ization of the salt duties throughout India has really had the 

 effect of enhancing the duty on salt to persons who require 

 salt to a large extent and of diminishing it to persons who 

 require salt to a much smaller extent. The greatest objection 

 to the salt tax is, however, the large establishments at heavy 

 cost which it is necessary to maintain to protect the revenue. 

 The strength of the Police force employed throughout the 

 Presidency for the prevention and detection of crime against 

 life and property is 22,668 and the cost 36^ lakhs of rupees ; 

 while the force employed for the protection of the salt and 

 abkdri revenues, that is, for the purpose of preventing people 

 from doing what, but for these taxes, would be innocent 

 and even meritorious, is 8,606, the cost being IS^ lakhs of 

 rupees. This multiplication of Government establishments 

 of a semi-police character with none of the responsibilities of 

 the regular police force is to my mind a serious evil. The 

 tendency" of the Salt Department, as indeed of all depart- 



^' The Salt Department has of late years recommended a reversion to the old 

 Inonopoly system of manufacture and sale on behalf of Government and this view has 

 been urged strongly in the Administration Report of the department for 1890«91. 



