THE EVOLUTION OF PROVINCIAL FINANCE IN BRITISH INDIA - Page 162

BUDGET BY ASSIGNED REVENUES 147

Province Contributions to the Imperial Government Col3 Col4
1879-80 1880-1 Total in Lakhs.
N.W.P. ... ... ... N.W.P. ... ... ... Bombay ... ... ... Punjab ... ... ... Burma ... ... ... Central Provinces ... ... Madras ... ... ... Assam ... ... ... Total ... Rs. 10 7½ 4 3 3 2½ 2 1½ Rs. 10 7½ 4 3 3 2½ 2 1½ Rs. 20 15 8 6 6 5 4 3
33½ 33½ 67

These contributions were repaid in 1882-3; but for the time being they were in effect a gain or at least a relief to the Imperial treasury. The real gain to the Imperial treasury consisted in the retrenchments made in assigning allotments for services transferred to provincial management. The amount of retrechment secured in the case of each of the provinces may be summarized as follows :—

Province Retrenchment

Rs.

N.W. Provinces ... 3,54,000 5 per cent. of the total allotment.

Oudh ... ... 73,000,,,,,,

Bengal ... ... 5,90,000,,,,,,

Central Provinces ... 90,000,,,,,,

Bombay ... ... 73,000,,,,,,

Punjab ... ... 2,41,000,,,,,,

This does not exhaust the total gain reaped by the Imperial Government. Two other ways of gain must also be mentioned along with this. It should be borne in mind that by taking the standard yield of the assigned revenues at a level higher than what was justified by their history, the Government of India was able to assign reduced sums for the provincial services than what it would have been required to do if the standard yield had been fixed at a lower level. This reduction in assignments owing to abnormal estimates of the ceded revenues was a direct gain. The excesses