68
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
total revenue demand on account of ganja rose by more than Rs. 30,000, the incidence per
head of population going up from 3 to 4 pies.
The districts in which the demand was greatest were:—
Jubbulpur.
Balaghat.
Raipur.
Seoni.
Nagpur.
Bhandara.
1886-87.
Jubbulpur, as for years past, was far ahead of any other district, and Raipur now took
second place in regard to both revenue and amount of ganja taxed. Balaghat and Seoni
occupied the fourth and fifth places, as in 1884-85, but in reverse order.
38. The losses incurred by cultivators in 1885-86 caused them in the following year to
take out fewer licenses and to reduce the area under ganja;
but in spite of this there was the large outturn of 9,290
maunds, which was ten times the quantity needed for provincial consumption and more than
2,000 maunds in excess of the quantity required for export and provincial consumption com-
bined. As much as 6,000 maunds were exported to the North-West Provinces and Oudh, where
the Government were considering the advisability of imposing an import duty on the drug.
39. An important executive order was issued in this year. In 1880 (see para. 17) the
Chief Commissioner had directed that ganja should be issued from the Central Stores in as
clean a state as possible; but in 1881-82 (see para. 20) and subsequent years the place of
cleaning ganja had been left an open question, and it was found that this resulted in tahsildars
being overburdened with work in supervising the separation and burning of refuse. It was now
made obligatory in all cases to effect a partial cleaning at the Government Store-houses before
packing for despatch to tahsils. At the same time the use of "hampers" instead of bags was
recommended, and the practice which started thereupon was subsequently enjoined by condi-
tion 6 of the form of wholesale license as finally modified in 1891.
40. The consumption of taxed ganja in the Khalsa fell off by 141 maunds, and was only
slightly in excess of that in 1884-85. The decline was most marked in the cases of Nagpur,
Bhandara, Jubbulpur, and Sambulpur, and it appears to have been due partly to the failure of
crops and partly to a further advance in license fees for the right of retail vend. In Sambul-
pur the monopolies of retail vend were auctioned for the first time, so that retail prices must
have been specially affected in that district: up to this time the system introduced in 1880-81
of licensing shops at fixed rates and without restriction as to number had been adhered to, the
idea being that smuggling from the surrounding feudatory States would best be combated by
placing no limit on the number of licenses that might be issued.
Retail shops increased by 70. There was a nominal increase of 34 in Sambulpur, where
the figures for previous years are really those of average number of licenses issued monthly. 13
new shops were opened in Raipur, where the allowance had always been short, having regard
to the growth of population and consumption. Of the 8 additional shops in the Narsingpur
district only 3 were actually worked: all were on the Bhopal frontier, and were licensed with
the object of checking smuggling from that State.
The provincial incidence of revenue per head of population rose from just 4 to nearly 41/2
pies.
1887-88.
41. The outturns of ganja in Nimar had been so large in the years 1884-85 and the two
which followed it that additional accommodation had to be
hired and the market was overstocked. In order to obviate
the inconvenience which had thus been found to result from over-production, a storage fee of
6 pies per maund per mensem, payable quarterly in advance, was imposed upon all ganja depo-
sited in a Government store-house. This impost appears to have brought about the desired
result, for the area under cultivation and the outturn were each little more than half of what
they had been in 1886-87. Storage fees amounting to Rs. 472 were realized in the course of
the year.
In October 1887 another source of revenue was invented, a permit fee of Re. 1 per maund
being made leviable on all purchases of ganja effected by persons who, not being licensed
vendors under the Excise Act, resorted to the Government Store-house at Khandwa for their
supplies. In proposing the imposition of this fee the Commissioner of Excise wrote as
follows:—
"The part played by the Khandwa store as an entrepôt for the supply of the ganja
demand of those provinces is quite insignificant when compared with its use
as a mart for the convenience of foreign purchasers. To it throng traders from
Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ratlam, Dhar, Jodhpur, Oodeypur, Rewa, Panna, Baroda,
and other States of less note, and licensed vendors from the North-West Pro-
vinces compete with contractors from Berar for the purchase of the cultivators'
stock. Between 6,000 and 7,000 maunds of ganja have, on the average of the
last four years, been annually exported from Khandwa to other provinces and
to Native States. For the convenience thus afforded to them all these foreign
purchasers pay absolutely nothing."
Permit fees amounting to Rs. 1,028 were realized before the close of the year, and this
sum alone more than sufficed to cover the cost of the additions to the store-house at Khandwa,
which it had been found necessary to make.