HC Deb 11 July 1889 vol 338 cc111-2
SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, whether complete effect has yet been given to that part of the Secretary of State's Dispatch of 19th April, 1888, on Indian Excise, in which he expresses The conclusion that some years ago the number of licensed outstills and liquor shops was unduly increased in some parts of Bengal, and the view that, in all places and tracts where the population is large and adequate means exist for controlling the distillery arrangements, a preference should be given to the modern fixed duty system, And every gallon of spirit passed into consumption must pay the full duty; whereas under the contract system, and still more under the outstill system, it is the interest and in the power of the distiller to make as much spirit and to push the sale thereof by cheapening liquor as far as he possibly can; whether, as a matter of fact, the system inculcated by the Secretary of State, which, after being in force for many years in all the populous districts under the Government of Bengal, and confirmed after a searching inquiry in 1871, was subsequently reversed, has oven yet been quite fully re-established in those provinces; whether the Government of India have made allowance to the Government of Bengal in the financial arrangements affecting the latter province for the loss of revenue that may result from the abolition of the system now condemned, or whether a financial difficulty still exists; and, why this part of the excise question, which originally gave rise to the discussion, is carefully avoided in the Indian Finance Minister's Statement for 1889–90, and is not reverted to in the Secretary of State's Despatch of 16th May, 1889?

* THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Sir J. GORST,) Chatham

(1) Complete effect has not yet been given to the proposed reforms in the Bengal Excise System, but the outstill system is being gradually abolished in one populous district after after another; (2) The system is not yet fully re-established; (3) Allowance for a loss of revenue from the change of system has been made to the Province of Bengal. But the Secretary of State cannot without reference to India state its amount.

SIR J. CAMPBELL

Is the Secretary of State of opinion that no financial difficulty now exists?

* SIR J. GORST

There is none that we are aware of.