BENGAL MEMORANDUM.
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The great increase in the consumption of bhang is more apparent than real, and is due
to larger use of the duty-paid drug.
60. The importance of hemp-drugs in these provinces will be apparent from the
fact that out of a total excise revenue of 115 lakhs in 1892-93, ganja and its congeners con-
tributed 241/4 lakhs, or about 21 per cent., and occupy the second place, being next only to
country spirits. Of the four varieties that are taxed, ganja, bhang, charas, and majum, ganja
alone yielded more than 233/4 lakhs. The revenue from majum, a sweet preparation of bhang
in the form of confection, is insignificant, being under Rs. 2,000. The consumption of
majum is practically confined to Calcutta, Patna, and Cuttack. The revenue from charas was
under Rs. 10,000. It is consumed in the urban areas of a few districts in Central and West-
ern Bengal. The revenue from bhang exceeded half a lakh. Its consumption is general,
and the quantity (1,034 maunds) that paid duty represents but a small fraction of what was
illicitly consumed.
61. The cultivation and manufacture of Rajshahi ganja that not only supplies the Lower
Provinces, but is also exported to Assam, Nepal, North-Western Provinces, &c., is confined
to a small well-marked area. It is a paying crop, and a year of good prices usually leads
to extended cultivation in the next. From the time the drug is brought to the Naogaon
head office, to be weighed, packed, and despatched to the consuming districts, the safeguards
against fraud provided by the existing rules appear to be ample, and it may be safely affirmed
that there is little room for evasion of duty during transit or in the subsequent stages, includ-
ing storage in golas, issue to retail vendors and sale to consumers. There is likewise good
reason to think that there is no unlicensed cultivation, and that no ganja is made for the
market outside the recognized tract.
62. The weak points of the system may be said to be all connected with the process of
manufacture and the storage of the drug in private golas prior to disposal to wholesale
dealers. Manufacture begins simultaneously at different places, and its progress is not
watched as closely as it ought to be. The outturn is not checked then and there, but a
rough estimate is subsequently made by merely counting the number of bundles of each sort,
which can hardly supply the place of an accurate weighment. Then the drug is stored in
private houses, in mere sheds which are sometimes open and always insecure, and there is
ample opportunity for petty pilfering by outsiders, even supposing the cultivators were all
above suspicion.
63. The difficulty of working a scheme of public golas without a Government monopoly
has been adverted to under section (c). In the case of opium the cultivator sells his produce
outright to Government at a fixed price and has no further concern with it. The entire
quantity purchased from the different cultivators is dealt with as one stock. In the case of
ganja, however, the drug remains the cultivator's property and in his charge until he dis-
poses of it to a licensed purchaser. It has therefore been found impracticable to introduce
public warehouses where all the drug could be stored immediately after manufacture. In
view of the attacks made against the Government monopoly in opium, it is not likely that
any proposal to establish a similar monopoly in ganja would be received with favour. But with
a larger establishment the existing checks on manufacture might be rendered more effective.
64. Four sorts of ganja are now made, flat large twigs, flat small twigs, round, and choor,
and these distinctions are observed for the levy of duty and for the purposes of the wholesale
trade but no twigs or woody matter are taken by the retail purchaser, and for retail sale the
other varieties are also reduced to choor by the retail vendor. It would therefore be a good plan
to have only one sort and abolish flat and round. Particular localities are said to favour par-
ticular sorts, but the fact that the consumption of choor increased very largely (from 424
maunds to 1,369 maunds) during the past year owing to the discovery that it was more
lightly taxed in proportion to the amount of narcotic matter present in it, would seem to
show that there can be no great objection to its general adoption. To the wholesale dealer
this would reduce cost of carriage and save storage room; to Government it would simplify
accounts, and remove all chances of fraud to revenue for which differential rates afford some
room.
65. The cost of daily average allowance of ganja is 3 to 6 pies, while the cost of liquor to
the habitual consumer is much higher. The cost of liquor is almost prohibitive to the poorer
classes in Eastern and Central Bengal, but even in Bihar, where liquor is cheap, the daily
cost is seldom less than 9 to 12 pies. In this view ganja may be said to be insufficiently
taxed. Competition, however, is annually raising the license fees, and the duty is also
enhanced from time to time.
66. Under the present system the wholesale dealers (goladars) make very large profits in
some districts. They pay no license fees and combine to create a monopoly. It would per-
haps be a better plan to recognize the monopoly, but to obviate its evil effects by fixing a
maximum price for sales to retail vendors. Government might also appropriate a portion of
the profits by giving the wholesale license for a given area to the person who agreed to pay
the largest amount for each seer sold, in addition to the duty.
CALCUTTA;
K.
G. GUPTA,
The 27th November
1893.
Commissioner of Excise, Bengal.
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