‘REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1882-83.’ [‎157v] (323/498)

Chap. V.
248 BOMBAY ADMINISTRATION RDPORT. [ 1882 - 83 .
REVENUE
AND
FINANCE.
Intoxicating drugs.
taken place in the number of trees tapped for the extraction of toddy in Thana and other
Konkan districts. There can be no doubt that at the same time the large expenditure
incurred by Government in recent years on establishments and rent paid for leases of the
abkari management of Native States,, which formerly supplied large quantities of spirit for
contraband uses in British territory, has had a material effect in checking the consumption
of illicit liquor in many parts of this Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. .
The revenue derivable from the consumption of intoxicating drugs has always been
raised by annual auction sales of the privilege of retailing them throughout the year. Rules
were sanctioned, for the first time in 1880, under the new A'bkdri Act for the better
regulation of the trade in intoxicating drugs. These rules came into force on 1st January
1881. Under those rules the manufacture and sale of any of the drugs by a cultivator
without a license has been prohibited; separate forms of licenses have been prescribed for
wholesale and retail sale ; the annual farm system has been maintained ; forms of permits
for import, export, transport and removal of the drugs have been laid down; and fees
according to the following scale, have been made leviable on each such permit :—
If the amount does not exceed 10 Indian maunds ... ... ... Rs. 5
Por every additional 2 Indian maunds ... ... ... ... Re, 1
provided that the fee is to be charged only once in each continuous transaction, and that
no fee is to be levied when the drugs are transported from one place to another within the
same district.
The intoxicating drugs revenue and miscellaneous dbkari receipts for the last eleven
years were as follows : —
Drugs Revenue.
Miscellaneous Receipts.
Rs.
Rs.
Average of 5 years ending 1876-77 ...
54,612
17,131
1877-78
50,126
16,439
1878-79
49,234
56,390
1879-80
50,060
41,816
1880-81
47,788
39,871
1881-82
59,314
73,165
1882-83
80,605
67,797
Stamps.
The revenue realized under the Indian Stamp Act No. I of 1879 during the year under
report amounted to Rs. 18,56,445, and that under the Court Fees Act No. YII of 1870 to
Rs. 23,63,574, as contrasted with Rs. 18,37,867 and Rs. 23,28,235 respectively during the pre
vious year. There was, therefore, an increase of Rs. 18,578 in the receipts under the former
head and of Rs. 35,339 in those under the latter, the total increase being Rs. 53,917, or a little
over 1 per cent. The total expenditure on account of both descriptions of stamps amounted
to Rs. 2,05,463 in the year 1882-83 as compared with Rs. 2,03,213 in 1881-82. The net
revenue derived during the year under report thus amounted to Rs. 40,14,555, and was in
excess of that of the year 1881-82 by Rs. 51,666. It appears, however, that the stamp
revenue has on the whole rapidly declined in the last ten years, and is now less by more than
10 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. than it was in 1872-73.
The fluctuations in the revenue from certain denominations of stamps are the opposite
of those which occurred in the year 1881-82. Thus the receipts from foreign bill stamps and
India revenue stamps, the sales of which showed a considerable decrease during that year,
exhibit a large increase during the year under report, while a decrease has taken place in
the revenue from bills of exchange and hundi stamps, in which there was the largest increase
during 1881-82. The sales of foreign bill stamps yielded Rs. 55,157, against Rs. 21,502 in
the previous year. The increase of Rs. 33,655, or 156 per cent., is ascribed principally to the
check given to unauthorized sales of stamps of that class by firms which obtained them in
the year 1881-82 from Agra at a higher rate of discount than that allowed in this Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. .
The receipts on account of India revenue stamps amounted to Rs. 1,42,601 in addition to
Rs. 17,139 realized from the levy of stamp duty on skeleton forms of instruments impressed
with one-anna stamps. The total revenue from both these sources therefore amounted to
Rs. 1,59,740, being in excess of that of the year 1881-82 by Rs. 50,434, or 46 per cent.
The revenue realized on account of share transfer stamps aggregated Rs. 15,547, while in
previous years it seldom exceeded Rs. 1,000. The receipts would probably have been larger
had it. not been for the fact that the change in the mode of stamping* transfers of shares,
authorized by the Government of India, which permitted the use of adhesive stamps to denote
the duty chargeable on instruments of this kind, was not sufficiently known to the public to
be fully taken advantage of till more than six months had elapsed from the date of the issue
of the notification.
Under the head of u Bills of Exchange and Hundi Stamps”, the receipts from which
showed the largest increase in 1881-82, there was a decrease of Rs. 15,578, or 6 per cent., in
^ report, the amount realized in the former year being Rs. 2,59,600 as compared
mu' ^ S ' latter. In 10 districts there was an increase, and in 9 a decrease.
1 he largest decrease took place in Bombay, and is ascribed to a falling off in the export trade.