PAPAVER
somniferum.
ADMINISTRA-
TION.
Weighment
and Duty-
Extracted from the Dictionary of
Guards for
Escort of Con-
signments.
Receipt in
Bombay.
Fiscal Administration of
The Government duty on opium weighed at Ajmere for export by sea
from Bombay is at present R675 per chest containing 1401/4lb net weight
including dust and leaf. The duty on opium weighed at Ajmere was
raised from R625 per chest to R675 on the 16th July 1877, and to R725 on
15th September 1870 and again reduced to R675 per chest from 28th
June 1882. The hundis tendered having been received and approved, the
half chests are arranged in the godown and numbered consecutively in
English. The merchants provide and pay for porters, carpenters, and men
for screwing up the chests opened for weighment. On the arrival of the
officer who makes the weighment, he selects at hazard two half-chests out
of every ten of each consignment brought to the scales. From these an
average is struck ; when the average falls short of the allowance made by
Government, viz , 70lb 20z. per half-chest, the deficiency is allowed to be
made good ; when it is in excess, the number of pounds in excess is with--
drawn. This is called net weighment.
" When the net weighment is completed, the boxes are nailed up, and
repacked and the gross weighments are proceeded with-that is, the chests
as ready for conveyance, are weighed and marked in English. Full par--
ticulars are then entered in the passport granted for each weighment.
The gross weight exceeds the net by about 5olb in each half-chest. To
prevent molestation on the road, a vernacular pass is granted to the person
appointed by the merchant to accompany the despatch, in which the parti--
culars of the consignment are inserted, and the weekly register of the
passports is sent to the Commissioner of Customs, Opium and Abkari,
Bombay. The passport is valid for two years from the date of its issue.
The guards necessary for the escort of the consignments are supplied or
paid for by the merchants or insurers. Advice of each despatch is for-
- w a r d e d t o t h e C o m m i s s i o n e r o f C u s t o m s , S a l t a n d O p i u m , B o m b a y , t h e
day after it occurs. There are seven subordinate offices attached to the
Malwa Agency (Indore),—Ujjain, Rutlam, Dhar, Udaipur, Joara, Man- -
desar, and Bhopal, the officers in charge of which forward their hundis to
the head office, and in return receive passports bearing the head office
registered number.
.
_
. _
" At Bombay the process observed with the pass fees levied on opium is
as follows :—The Malwa-Ahmedabad or Ajmere Agent, as the case may
be, grants the pass, receives a hundi in payment of the pass fee, and hands
it on to the Accountant-General. The Accountant-General sends the hundi
to the General Treasury to be realised, and informs the Commissioner
of Customs that he has done so. The Commissioner of Customs at once
records it as a debt due by him and takes care that the amount is re- -
covered. The Treasury receives the amount of the hundi, and informs the
Commissioner of Customs to that effect. The Commissioner of Customs,
on the arrival of the opium at Bombay, receives it, and, as a check against
smuggling on the way, sees that the chest corresponds with the pass,
that the weighment also corresponds, less a certain amount of dryage,
and that the pass fees have been duly recovered. If the pass fees have not
been paid, he seizes the opium and recovers the amount of the hundi and
the interest thereon. Before the export of the opium to China from
Bombay, the Commissioner of Customs weighs it, examines the pass under
which it was imported, and checks off therefrom the quantity to be export--
ed."
It will thus be seen from the above brief sketch of the Opium Policy,
that at every stage in the cultivation, manufacture, sale and export, the
Government of India exercises the most direct supervision that is possible.
It thus holds the traffic in its power, and, by the imposition of heavy taxes,
restricts to the utmost the consumption in India by retaining the price, at