20 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
In Bombay the salt manufacture was handed over to the individuals under the system of an excise duty equivalent to the import duty on the article. The salt mines of Punjab were worked by the Government and the salt was sold on the spot.
The North-West Provinces depended upon the Lower Provinces of Bengal, the Sambhur Salt lake in Rajputana and parts of western India for their supply of salt. The duties were so arranged that the salt from all parts when it reached the North-West Provinces tended to be equal in price.
IV. Customs
There were innumerable transit or inland duties levied at every town and on every road in the shape of tolls. But they were abolished in Bengal by Act 14 of 1836 : in Bombay by Act 1 of 1838 : and in Madras by Act 6, of 1844 : and uniform system of customs was established all through British India. The evil effects of these inland transit duties will be discussed later on.
There remained two sources of customs revenue :
(1) The sea customs on exports and imports, the former on salt and indigo.
(2) The land customs levied mainly on articles crossing the frontier lines between the native and British territories.
V. Besides the salt and opium monopolies the East India Company had the tobacco monopolies as another source of revenue.
VI. Abkarree or revenue obtained from the sale of monopolies to sell spirits and liquors. Licences were sold to the highest bidder who contracted to sell at his own price, the hours of business and the location of the shop being regulated by the Government.
VII. The Wheel-tax was levied upon hackneys, carts, buggys, etc.
VIII. The “Sayer duties” was a collective name for unclassified taxes. In different parts of the country it included different taxes. Once it included the irregular collections made by native revenue officers. In Madras it included the transit duties, in Bengal the pilgrim tax was included under this head. In the Deccan “this source of revenue” was “divided into two great heads the first denominated mohturfa, which embraces taxes on shops, trades,