120 



and it seems to me to be a matter for serious consideration 

 whether this tax should be maintained at its present high 

 level, when so much attention is now being devoted to the 

 improvement of the sanitation of the country and the health 

 of the population. I would therefore venture respectfully to 

 suggest that the gradual reduction and eventual abolition 

 of this tax should be pressed on the attention of the Govern- 

 ment of India, a tax on the consumption of tobacco being if 

 necessary imposed as a substitute. A tax on tobacco man- 

 aged under a system like that in force in France will be 

 liable to none of the objections urged against the tax on 

 salt. The plant can grow only on particular soils and requires 

 careful cultivation ; and it will not therefore be necessary to 

 employ as costly preventive establishments for the protection 

 of a tax on tobacco as it is in the case of salt which forms 

 spontaneously in many places on the coast. Any quantity 

 of excellent tobacco might be grown on the lunkas or islands 

 in the Goddvari and Kistna rivers which are at the disposal 

 of Government and leased out annually for cultivation. 

 Tobacco is not a bulky article like salt, does not waste in 

 being carried inland or cost much for carriage. According 

 ♦ to one estimate the value of the tobacco produced and con- 

 sumed in the country is 6 millions Rx. and according to 

 another it is 2| millions. Taking the lower figure, a tax 

 amounting to 300 per cent."^^ on the cost price of the tobacco 

 consumed will yield the revenue now derived from salt. 

 Tobacco is not a necessary of life, at all events to such an 

 extent as salt, and a large proportion of the tax will be con- 

 tributed by the poorest classes, who it is considered should 

 be called upon to bear their share of the public burdens. 



52. The receipts from this source consist of the revenue 



derived from (1) country spirits ; (2) toddy 



^J^^^^^°^ spirits and ^j. fermented palm juice; (3) spirits and 



fermented liquors imported or made in the 

 country according to the European methods ; and (4) opium. 

 The abkari or revenue derived from intoxicating liquors is 

 an ancient one in this Presidency. Tavernier mentions that 

 the King of Golgonda derived a very large revenue from the 



of by the poor ; they were not themselves conscious how severely they were affected 

 by those taxes, and how much more of the articles they wonld consume if the duties 

 were lower. But while this peculiarity of indirect taxation makes it a most convenient 

 instrument of finance, it throws additional responsibility upon all Governments which 

 resort to it to bring the most enlightened consideration to bear upon the adjustment of 

 taxes, which may really be very heavy and unjust, without the fact being perceived or 

 understood by those on whom they fall." 



" In France the cost price of 1 lb. of tobacco appears to be Gd. and the tax levied ia 

 44d. or more than 70O per cent, of the cost price. 



