'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎132v] (269/610)

230
L »ndtax.
ftown lands.
The land tax is paid by the landlord according to an anti
quated assessment, which in some districts has not been revised
for a century with the result that great inequalities exist, and
the State is the loser. Some formerly flourishing villages have
fallen on bad times and the tax has been lessened, while other
villages, which have become populous since the assessment,
continue to pay the original amount.
In some districts, notably in Mazandaran, the 1 2 land tax
was remitted in return for military service performed by the
inhabitants, but although no military contingents have been
furnished for many years the landowners still pay no tax.
The land tax was assessed at a certain proportion of the
produce and, except in pastoral areas where cash payments
were fixed per head'of sheep and cattle, it was generally pay
able in kind. This payment in kind has in many cases been
commuted to cash, and its amount has often been reduced
in the process as the official in return for a ‘•plshkash’ 1 from the
landlord would defraud the State by commuting it at a rate
below the market value of the grain.
While the price of grain has risen greatly during recent
years the land tax, once commuted into cash, has remained
stationary and the proportion which it bears to the total income
derived by the landlord from his peasantry, who pay their rent
in kind, is consequently less. It is impossible to estimate this
proportion accurately, but it probably averages between 3
and do- Apart from holders of land on this feudal tenure,
some great landowners, notably Sipah Salar, evade payment
of any land tax and are too powerful and influential to be
brought to book.
Crown lands are found in many parts of this area and are of
two kinds :—
1. Khdliseh-i-Daulati .—Crown lands let out to tenants
who pay rent to the State as to a private landowner. The
revenues of some of these lands also have been ^assigned for the
maintenance of soldiers or to individuals.
2
, tliei
over
at a
ink
19(3
aw
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* «
i
ii
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1 The peasant with few exceptions is only taxed in villages divided into small
holdings. ,, . ,
s The ‘ mallat ’ of such districts was said to be ‘ tuyul for the maintenance
of the soldiers. ,. „ . . -
3 In Mazandaran in 1919 an attempt was made by the chief of finance to
make a fresh assessment on the basis of T V (ushr), and his estimate that this
assessment would bring a considerable increase of revenue was corroborated by
the outcry aroused. “ See also rents,”
* i. e. made ‘ tuyul.’