CENTRAL PROVINCES MEMORANDUM.
69
42. In June 1887 the Government of India sanctioned a substantial increase in the rates
of duty on round and choor ganja in Bengal, and the Chief Commissioner thereupon requested
the Commissioner of Excise to report whether the duty should be raised in this province also.
In reply the Commissioner reported that the effect of raising the duty of Rs. 2 a seer would
be to lower the bids for retail veud monopolies, and that it would be specially inappropriate to
raise the duty just when consumption had declined owing to the losses which had followed on
the failure of harvests, in whole or in pars, for two successive years. Accordingly, the rate was
left unchanged.
43. Two other suggestions for improving the ganja revenue were submitted, though not
recommended for adoption, by the Commissioner of Excise, Mr. L. K. Laurie, in this year,
viz., (1) to abolish wholesale vendors, Government purchasing and retailing the drug through
its own agents, and (2) to economize establishment by closing the store at Nagpur and pro-
hibiting cultivation in the Nagpur district altogether. The Chief Commissioner agreed with
Mr. Laurie in thinking that, on the whole, Government agency was unsuited for purchasing
and selling the drug to retail vendors, and that it was best to postpone suppression of culti-
vation in Nagpur, until the effect of imposing a storage fee upon the extent of that in Nimar
had been well ascertained.
44. Supervision of harvesting, drying, and storing of the ganja crop was introduced this
year, and has been exercised annually ever since. A case had been brought to light of a cul-
tivator having a considerable quantity of the drug in his possession at his village-home, and
there was thus reason to believe that many of the complaints of smuggling were due to secret
disposal of ganja illicitly kept back by cultivators. The following establishment was accord-
ingly entertained for the Khandwa tahsil:—
Rs.
25 peons at Rs. 5 each for one month
125
5 supervisors at Rs. 20
"
100
Total
225
This precautionary measure was not adopted in the Nagpur district, as the area under cul-
tivation and the number of licenses taken out were comparatively small.
45. The total revenue of the year was Rs. 1,92,028-12-1, made up as follows:—
Rs. A. P.
Direct duty on ganja
65,244 8 3
Whol esal e license fees—ganja
14,716 3 10
Retail
"
"
1,08,633 8 0
Direct duty on bhang
838 10 0
Retain license fees—majura
1,095 14 0
* Permit and storage fees
1,500 0 0
The amount, of taxed ganja consurmed tell off by nearly 33 maunds, but receipts from
wholesale licensa fees remained at almost the same figure as in. 1886-87, viz., Rs. 14,700 in
round numbers.
Under retail license fees there was a total decline of about Rs. 17,500, but nearly Rs.
17,000 of this occurred in the districts of Nagpur, Jubbulpur, and Raipur. This was due in
the first two districts to a relapse from the high bids of 1886, and in Raipur, where rice is the
staple food, to the partial failure of two successive rice crops.
The labouring populati- n, who are the Target class of drug consumers, were placed in
exceptionally hard circumstances at the beginning of 1887-88 as the following extract, from the
Chief Commissioner's Resolution on the Revenne Administration of the Central Provinces
during the year ending the 30th September 1887 sufficiently indicates:—
"The seasons resembled in their character those of the preceding year in which the rice
crop was a very poor one and the linseed crop an almost tolal failure. * * * * Owing
to the partial failure of the rice crop and to the inferiority of the crop of the preceding year
there was a good deal of hardship in the rice-growing districts. A considerable portion of the
labouring population was undoubtedly pinched for food to an extent rare in these provinces,
and the pressure extended to the poorer cultivators. * * * * * In the northern dis-
tricts the continuous high prices have unfavourably affected the condition of the labouring poor.""
The past qui nquenni um.
46. During the period of 5 years, the statistics of which remain to be discussed, several
important administrative changes were made.
In the first place a registration fee at the rate of Re. 1 per maund was made payable on
all sales of ganja to purchasers other than licensed vendors of the Central Provinces, the
object being to enhance the charge on exports to Native States and Berar which had been in-
troduced in October 1887, and to obtain from licensed vendors of other parts of British India
some return for the convehiences afforded them at the Government Store-house, Khandwa. The
"permit" fees had not especially affected export to foreign territory, which were about 3,000
maunds in 1887-88 against 3,800 maunds in 1886-87, and buyers from both foreign territory
and the North-West Provinces were inconveniencing our wholesale vendors by forestalling
them in the market and by raising the price.
47. Next the period of 50 days allowed to cultivators of ganja, under the rale for removal
of their crop to the Government Store-house after permission to cut had been granted, was found
* Not included in statement in Appendi x A, as there is no appropri ate col umn in whi ch to exhibit them.
18