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Financial Relations with Government of India.— Local governments exercise their financial powers in strict subordination to the Government of India, which alone can borrow, and which requires the submission for its sanction of the annual provincial budgets. To ensure a reasonable amount of decentralization the Supreme Government has made financial contracts with the provinces under which they receive definite shares of the receipts, and are responsible for definite shares of the expenditure, under particular heads. The existing contract dates only from 1911-12 (see Table V).

Income and Expenditure.— Excluding income from railways, post offices, telegraphs, salt, and sales of excise opium, which are wholly imperial, the revenue of the Panjab in 1911-12 was £5,057,000 (Rs. 758,56,000), of which the provincial share was £2,662,200 (Rs. 399,33,000), to which have to be added £251,800 (Rs. 37,77,000) on account of assignments made by the Government of India to the province. This brought up the total to £2,914,000 (Rs. 437,10,000). The expenditure was £2,691,933 (Rs. 403,79,000). This does not include £983,000 spent from loan funds on irrigation works, chiefly the great Triple Project. The large expenditure on railways is imperial. Of the gross income more than three-fourths is derived from the land (Land Revenue, 46 p.c, Irrigation, chiefly canal water rates, 29 p.c, and