Letter and memorandum by George Henry Maxwell Batten, Commissioner of Inland Customs,concerning the abolition of the customs line between Rajputana [Rājasthān] and the Central Indian States. [‎6r] (11/16)

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This duty would have to be absorbed in
the Imperial duty.
The Salt works in British Territory out
side the Customs Line, i. e., those in the
Gurgaon and Rohtak Districts and in
Ajmir, would be treated as those in Na
tive States, that is, the excise duty would
be taken before the salt left the works.
If these measures were carried out, the
Native States which possess no salt would
be entirely at our mercy. Their people
would be obliged to eat duty-paid salt.
They would not be in a position to enforce
any compensation for this extra taxation
thrown on their people. But I think that
it would be a wise as well as a generous
policy to grant them some of the proceeds
of the tax on the condition of their abo
lishing at least an equivalent amount of
transit duties. We could afford to do this,
as the proceeds of the tax would be large,
and it would be politic to do it, as it would
convert an unpopular into a popular mea
sure.
It will be seen from the figures given
in the beginning of this note that the sugar
duties more than cover the cost of the Line
which it is proposed to abolish, and that
therefore Government would lose the differ
ence. But the proposed measures would
enable us to abolish that part of the Bombay
Frontier Line which is maintained to
prevent the import of Rajputana salts into
that Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. . I gather from paragraph
24 of Mr. Pedder's report, dated 22nd
August 1870, on the Bombay Frontier
arrangements, that the portion of Line
referred to consists of three sections, the
Marwar, Myhee Kanta and Rewa Kanta
sections, aggregating 250 miles in length,
and costing more than £ 1,800 per annum.
The salt which is kept out by this Line,—
for none comes across it paying duty and
all other is prohibited,—is chiefly that
produced at Pachbhadra and in the vicinity
of the Luni Biver in Marwar. If the