'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎40v] (85/706)

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AZARBAIJAN
Any special remittances of taxation.
Salaries of officials, who, though not directly concerned with the dis^
trict, draw their incomes from it.
Pensions.
The taxation may be classed as direct and indirect. The direct is that
Taxation. levied on the land and forms the main por
tion of the revenue. The indirect is derived
from customs duties, road taxes (Rahdari), octroi, special guild taxes,
tribal taxes, passports.
In the first case the proprietor is responsible for the taxes, in the latter
the kadkhuda or headman. The tax is roughly estimated on the cul
tivated lands, sometimes on the water-supply, or again on cattle and
heads (poll-tax); no regular system exists, local circumstances, customs,
ancient rights, being among the minor factors influencing the question.
The valuations are made by Mlrzas or Secretaries, men with no other
qualifications, except those of writing and being able to keep accounts.
They proceed to the villages and value roughly the amount of cultivated
land, cattle, etc., and fix the proportions for taxation, nominally this is
one-tenth of the produce. The proportion once settled is seldom varied or
changed, except when the cultivated area and prosperity of a village has
much increased. The taxes are paid in cash and kind. The cash revenue
is derived from such cultivation as vines, or rice, and from poll and cattle
taxes ; that in kind from wheat, barley, straw and rice.
The customs duties go to the revenue of Persia at large and are
controlled by the Central Government. They do not form part of the
local revenue of the provinces. The system was, for many years, to farm
the customs to the Prime Minister, who sublet to minor contractors. The
local Government have no direct interest, neither can they interfere in the
general administration of the business. This is however a matter of
ancient history, as the customs throughout Persia are now managed by the
Director General, a Belgian, who appoints his own officers, who are res
ponsible to him alone, throughout Persia. The road taxes, octroi and
passports were also, as a rule, farmed out amongst certain of the court
officials who made a business of this part of the administration. An
instance of the practical working of one of the contracts will show
what was formerly the general system of the whole. Take the passports.
The original contract was ir the hand of an official who had sublet the mo
nopoly at the various frontiers, Turkish and Russian. The sub-con
tractors finding the profits less than they anticipated, suppressed the
original and authorized forms, on the face of which the price, condition
of issue, etc., were printed, replacing the same by another form, in which
many of the details were omitted. They then raised the price more than
50 per cent, from 5^ to 8 Jctutis, and reduced the available period of the
passport.
We now come to the illegitimate taxation of the Governors to reimburse
themselves for their outlay. The direct and indirect taxation above
described form the “As\” or real revenue, but in addition is another
taxation called the “ far ” (additional). This is an extra levy in cash