"ملف XXXVIII/٥ المجلد I صور: نوفمبر ١٩٢٨ - فبراير ١٩٣١" [و‎‎٢‎٨‎٢] (٦٨٨/٥٧٠)

Copy of a letter dated Karachi 18th September 1930 from
Mr. B.S.ihomae, Finance Minister, Muscat State, to
Major T.C.Fo w le, Political A^ent & H.B.M *6 Consul,
Muscat, on recess at Karachi.
Customs leakage at Sur.
The points ^hich discussed yesterday are as follo^c.-
(i) The nature of Customs leakage is t^o fold affecting
exporte and imports in a like degree.
(II) In theory an export tax is not Customsi in practice, in
the Muscat Etate^ it is and lias been )i)imemorally so and can be
regarded to square ^ith Oommercial Treuiies^ae Zakat^ w ilch is
otherwise uncollectuble in the interior^. This export tax in
the Batinah is a flat 5 £ of assessed value except in .case of
firewood 7| %. In Eur^ ho^ever^’-here exports consist chiefly of
(a) Bier (i.e.e dried dates) from Sharkiyah and J&’ulan,
(b) Dried fish^
this system of a percentage Value does not hold.
(Ill) The •Bier’ tax at fur is a tax on each camel load of
of the commodity arriving from the interior. If I remember
rightly l£ dollars - I increased it recently against the fall
in the exchazige and in the degree suggested by the -all who
considered any bigger incren.se may cause trouble.
X doubt whether tVie yield of this tax is more than «..£■ % of
trie value.
(IV) Fish catches at Sur bear a normal tax based on auction
value, in accordance with old usage. . If another more rigid
eystem, that of farming Government’s share to a contractor as
is done in Gwadur were practicable - which it is not under
present conditions and without the application of force - it
T^ould I consider produce some Re.8000/- a year - about t^ice as
mu*4a* as the i resent yield. The Gwadur system referred to is to
auction Government* share of iiTO of the catch for the ensuing
year to a contractor. He is a fish merchant, meets each boat,
Government # c share fc*To of each variety of fish caught
takes