Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/333

 TAXATION THROUGH MONOPOLY 311 one of the mn monopoly. sources of Indian revenue, is raised through ' The system under which the duty is levied,' says Sir J. Strachey, ' varies in different provinces. In Madras the duty is mostly collected under a monopoly by which all salt is manufactured on behalf of the Government, and sold at a price which gives a profit equivalent to the duty. In Bombay the duty is chiefly levied as an excise. In Lower Bengal it is levied chiefly in the form of a sea customs import duty. In the Punjab the duty is included in the selling price of the rock salt, which is dug and removed from the mines and sold by the Government. For the rest of the upper provinces, until 1879, the duty was collected when the salt imported from Rajputana crossed the British frontier. It is now levied at the places of production, where it is prepared by evaporation from the brine by a Government establishment.' t Indian administrators have had to face the same problems that harassed the A ncien Rgime in France. Different forms of taxa- tion, different rates of charge, producing all sorts of inequalities and injustice, existed in both cases. Happily by a bold system of equalisation Lord Lytton's administration succeeded in placing the charge on a uniform basis; but it may be remarked that the monopoly has been retained. Before passing to the other articles on our list, we may remark that the question of monopoly is in this case very likely to be mixed up with other and different considerations. To English- men, who have become accustomed to the full application of the principle that neither necessaries nor raw materials should be taxed, it appears to be the height of unwisdom to tax an article that combines both these attributes. For over sixty years salt has been free from duty in England, to the great comfort of the consumers and with much advantage to the important chemical industries. Other countries are not so fortunately placed. To procure the requisite funds heavy taxation is needed, and this has reduced them to a choice of evils. When the luxuries of the great mass of the people are few and ill-suited for taxation, some neces- saries must be made the subject of charge, and in many countries no easier source can be found than an article of such steady and gradual consumption. Again, in some countries, as in Italy, salt is not largely used for industrial purposes, and where it is, exemp- tion from duty can be granted to ' denaturalised ' salt, and this is actually done in most European countries. But for our present purpose it is most important to insist on the fact that if salt be, as Continental and Indian experience seems to show, one of the  Strachey, Finances of India, pp. 216 17.