BUDGET BY SHARED REVENUES 151
and charges were marked off from the rest and were shared between the Imperial and the Provincial in some definitely fixed proportion. The object of the arrangement was to replace rigidity in the Provincial revenues by elasticity. In the finances of the other Provinces there was elasticity in so far as their assignments were replaced by assigned sources of revenue. But to the degree in which their revenues were made up of fixed assignments their finances inevitably suffered from rigidity. In the case of Burma, however, the substitution of shares of growing revenues for fixed assignments gave complete elasticity to the Provincial revenues without which it had become so difficult to shoulder the responsibility of meeting expanding charges.
In recasting the framework of the Provincial Budget of Burma on the principle of shared revenues, all the heads of receipts and charges were made wholly Provincial, with the exception of the following, which were treated as wholly Imperial :—
(1) The Army ... ... Receipts and Charges.
(2) Post Office ... ... ” ” ”
(3) Telegraph ... ... ” ” ”
(4) Account Department ... ” ” ”
(5) Meteorological Department ... ” ” ”
(6) Political ... ... ” ” ”
(7) Remittance of Treasure and Premium ” ” ” on Bills of Exchange and unclaimed Bills of Exchange.
The third category of revenues and charges, namely, jointly Imperial and Provincial, covered the following items :—
(1) Land Revenue, including capitation tax, but excluding Fisheries, with such Land Revenue Refunds, charges of collection and settlement as cannot be attributed to Fisheries only.
(2) Forest revenue. Expenditure and Refunds.
(3) Export Duty on rice, and Refunds.
(4) Salt Revenue, Expenditure and Refunds.
Items comprising the third category were divided between the Imperial and Provincial Governments in the proportion of fivesixths to the former and one-sixth to the latter. By adopting this method of supply Burma, unlike other provinces, secured funds of an elastic character, for, even though the shares remained fixed the amount they brought in in any one year varied with the variation in the total yield of the revenues assigned or shared. Of course everything depended upon how Burma nursed the revenues