The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-04
THE SALT TAX IN INDIA.
An Important Question Presented to the
Indian National Congress.


From the New York Sun.
Among the resolutions discussed at
the meeting of the last Indian National
Congress, held at the end of December
at Madras, hardly any were of greater
Importance than that asking fer a re-
duetion in the duty on salt. In India
salt is a government monopoly, and is,
next to the land revenue, the most pro-
ductive source Of income from taxation,
opium coming third. In a review Of the
mineral production of India for 1897,
recently published by David Hooper.
salt takes the first place among the
more important minerals of economic
use and value. In the Salt range a
chain of hills in the Punjaub between
the Indus and the Jhelum, there is said
to be enough of the mineral to meet the
demands of the whole world for gen
erations to come. There is also the
Sambkar lake in Northern India; and
the Didwana and Pachbadra deposits
leased by the government of India from
the state of Jodhpur. with other de-
posits, and salt works all along the
coast contribute their quota to the ma
tive production, which, in 1897, was $685.,
11S tons, a decrease on that of the pre-
vious year of 1910 per cent and of 20.60
on the output of 1895, although the con-
sumption had risen considerably in pro-
portion to population.
For many years past the heavy duty
levied by the government on salt both
native and imported, has been cause
of loud complaint by the people of In
dia. The restriction of the native pro-
duction in favor of salt from Liverpool
by regular liners and as ballast by
ships specially chartered for the jute
trade and by tramp steamers bringing
coal to Port Said and then running
down to Ras Rowayat and Alden for
load of salt for India, is also a ground
of grievance in that it favors foreign
labor to the injury of the native. The
cost of production in India varies
greatly, running from about Z cents
maund of 50 pounds to as low as l
cent, according to. locality. The price
at which the government gives it to the
public Is one rupee, equivalent at the
present rate of exchange to 81 cents
per maund. 1t is not surprising that
the profit accruing to the government
from the salt tax in 1897 amounted to
S421T, $50 rupees, or, at present value of
the rupee as fixed by the government
of India, $3.50 $50.
On Kohat salt. which is largely ex-
ported into the Afridi country, the duty
up to 1883 was Il cents per maund; in
that year it was increased to "a cents
and three years later was raised to SO
cents. This eightfold increase in three
years in the taxation of their salt was
one of the grievances put forward by
the Afridi deputa tions recently at
Peshawur, and is commonly said in In
dia to have been one of the reasons Why
they rose in arms against the British
government.
In recent years the stocks of salt
have largely accumulated but as the
government monopoly is not conducted
on commercial principles there is no eff
fort to clear them out by sales at re-
duced prices, but production is re-
stricted, and the public. that buys to
the limits of it's means, but not of it's
needs. is derived of the free use of
one of the greatest necessaries of daily
life The government also loses, for
the duty collected in 1897 was less by
$146,713 than that received in 1896. AS
it is, there is not another article of gen.
eral necessity in India that is more
heavily taxed and, for protecting the
state monopoly. in which a more rigor-
Gus set of regulations is enforced, even
to the extent of being oppressive.
According to competent medical au-
thorities the public health and the
stamina of the poorer classes of the
Indian population are iniurious1y af-
feeted by the restricted use of salt, due
to the excessive taxation. The high
price of even the coarsest and COM
monest qualities of salt is also alleged
to be responsible for the serious epi-
denies that have thinned the stocks of
cattle in India in recent years and re-
acted injuriously on agriculture. From
all points of view the persistence of
the Indian government in maintaining
the present high taxation Of salt seems
to be a mistake. 1T acts injuriously on
the material condition of the popula-
ton and financially on the government,
and is fertile source Of discomfort that
has found utterance in the resolution
of the National Congress The theory