§ Sir HENRY COTTONasked the Undersecretary for India what was the Budget Estimate of the Indian opium revenue for the years 1906–7, 1907–8, and 1908–9, and the actuals for those years, giving the revised Estimate based on the figures available for the year 1908–9; and what is the reason for the systematic under-estimate of this branch of the Indian revenue?
§ Mr. BUCHANANThe figures are:—
1906–7, Budget Estimate, £4,831,100; actuals, £5,660,528.
1907–8, Budget Estimate, £4,851,100; actuals, £5,244,986.
1908–0. Budget Estimate, £4,842,900; revised, £5,884,200.
The revenue from opium is liable to violent fluctuations which cannot be foreseen, and to avoid loss the Estimate under this head has to be framed with special caution. In 1906–7 and 1907–8 higher prices were obtained from Bengal opium than could be reasonably anticipated. In the current year the imports of Malwa opium into Bombay for storage in the export warehouses have been abnormally large, and receipts from pass duty have in consequence exceeded the Estimate.
§ Sir HENRY COTTONWhy is it that the prices at the Calcutta auction sales are invariably underestimated?
§ Mr. BUCHANANThe prices in the current year ranged from 1,230 rupees to 1,500 rupees a chest, and a mean figure was taken. I cannot admit that they are invariably underestimated.
§ Sir HENRY COTTONBut do not the actuals exceed the estimates by about a million a year, year after year, in consequence of this underestimating of auction prices?
§ Mr. BUCHANANDuring the past year the actuals exceeded the estimates by more than a million; but the amount was not so much in previous years.