THE NATURE OF PROVINCIAL FINANCE 199
| PROVINC | CIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE I | Col3 | Col4 | Col5 | Col6 | IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT | Col8 | Col9 | Col10 | Col11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province | Ratio of Amount Surrendered to the Government of India to the Total Revenues raised in the Province. | Ratio of Amount Surrendered to the Government of India per Head to the Population of the Province. | ||||||||
| 1871- 2. | 1882- 3. | 1892- 3. | 1904- 5. | 1912- 13. | 1871- 2. | 1882- 3. | 1892- 3. | 1904- 5. | 1912- 13 | |
| C.P. ... Burma ... Assam ... Bengal ... N.W.P. and ... Oudh Punjab ... Madras ... Bombay ... U.P. ... Bihar and ... Orissa | .655 .728 ... .903 .785 .768 .828 .845 ... ... | .464 .575 .438 .746 .617 .648 .664 .648 ... ... | .615 .598 .390 .761 .435 .726 .667 .66 ... ... | .297 .497 .376 .742 ... .512 .638 .614 .567 ... | .204 .38 ... .596 ... .391 .479 .58 .381 .220 | .9 3.4 ... 2.4 1.5 1.7 2.3 5.0 ... ... | .69 .39 .75 1.99 1.24 1.5 2.0 4.1 ... ... | 1.3 .7 .75 2.9 1.4 1.4 2.3 5.4 ... ... | .55 4.37 .87 2.29 ... 1.57 2.34 4.75 1.48 ... | .59 3.08 ... 2.39 ... 1.64 1.79 5.6 .93 .17 |
Compiled from the Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Government of India and the Decennial Census Reports.
Similarly, whatever may be said of the relative merits of the proposals [1] of changning the system of divided heads of revenue into one of complete separation supplemented in favour of the Central Government by contributions from the Provinces in the form of (1) a fixed sum revisable every few years, or (2) a lump percentage on provincial revenues, or (3) a fluctuating contribution from the provinces on their population, revenues or wealth, there can be no doubt that they were all aimed at reaching some such intelligible basis of distributing the burden of the Imperial exchequer as equality of payment or ability to pay. No one who had cared to scrutinize the true nature of Provincial Finance could have been expected to take these proposals with the same seriousness with which they were offered by their authors. However, strange as it may seem, none of the two Commissions questioned their propriety. The Royal Commission on Decentralization did make it clear, though not quite forcibly, that equal contributions were not necessarily equitable contributions, but neither it nor the Royal Commission on Indian Expenditure challenged the language which spoke of the Provinces as surrendering their revenues to make contributions to the Imperial treasury after paying for their services. It therefore becomes all the more necessary to examine at some length the grounds which
1 See Report of the Royal Commission on Decentralization (hereafter abbreviated into R.C.D.)