HC Deb 03 June 1880 vol 252 c1074
MR. O'DONNELL

asked the Secretary of State for India, If he has reason to believe that there are financial irregularities on the receipt side as well as on the expenditure side of the late Indian Budget; and, whether the reported extraordinary increase of opium revenue was in any degree due to what may be called excess sales, whereby the average stock of prepared opium in the Government stores was reduced by anticipatory purchases to the probable loss of revenue in succeeding years; and, if so, whether he will inquire as to the causes which stimulated such an unusual demand?

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON

There is no reason to believe that there are any financial irregularities on the receipt side of the Indian Budget. At page 85 of the Papers recently presented to Parliament regarding the Estimates for the war in Afghanistan will be found a Table showing that the revenue for the year ended on the 31st of March last is now believed to be less by about £82,000 than was estimated in February. The increase of opium revenue in 1879–80 above the Budget Estimate was in February taken at £1,900,000; but it is now believed to have been about £1,800,000, of which, perhaps, about £300,000 may be attributed to the sale of an unusual number of chests of opium in Calcutta. The policy of the Government has been for several years to accumulate a reserve which should enable them to depend on a regular stock for sale, irrespective of the fluctuations in the crop of any one year. At the beginning of the year 1879, there being a large reserve in store, it was determined to sell 60,000 chests during the calendar year; but it was at the same time announced that, from the 1st of January, 1880, only 4,700 chests a month, or 56,400 in the year—which is about the average crop in recent years—would be sold, and that no alteration of the monthly amount sold would be made without a twelvemonth's notice. The sales in the official year 1879–80 were 59,100 chests, or 2,700 above the amount now fixed. This slight reduction of the stock in hand, which on the 1st of January, 1880, was 81,583 chests, is not likely to cause any loss of revenue in succeeding years.