DR. RUTHERFORD (Middlesex, Brentford)To ask the Secretary of State for India if he will state the chief items and amounts chargeable on India under Home charges, the total amount expended under Home charges for the last five years, and the proportion of Home charges to the annual expenditure of India.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) The information asked for has already, so far as concerns the period up to and including 1903–4, been laid before Parliament in the annual Returns entitled "Home Accounts of the Government of India." It has been repeated more briefly in the "Financial Statements of the Government of India," annually presented to Parliament. It has also been summarised in the following Papers which are annually presented, viz., (1) Explanatory Memorandum by the Secretary of State for India, (2) Statistical Abstract relating to British India, and (3) Statement exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress of India. The gross expenditure in England charged against Revenue in 1904–5 was as follows:—
Besides these payments, the outlay on stores, etc., for the construction of State railways and irrigation works was £1,502,352. The gross expenditure in England forms about one-fourth of the total annual expenditure of the Government of India.
£ Interest and management of debt and payment of interest and annuities on account of railways 9,762,193 Payments in connection with Civil Departments in India, excluding stores 382,924 India Office, including Auditor's and Store Departments 193,753 Army effective charges, excluding stores 1,474,535 Stores of all kinds charged against Revenue 2,964,196 Furlough allowances 218,692 Pensions, civil and military 4,467,464 £19,463,757