§ Mr. HANNONasked the Secretary of State for India whether the cost of the collection of Indian land revenue, which amounted in the year 1919–20 to £25,794,743, was £4,297,484, or, approximately, one-sixth of the net income, while the cost of collecting the remainder of the revenue, amounting to £66,159,677, was only £4,291,098, or, approximately, one-sixteenth; and why the collection of land revenue is proportionately so much higher?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe first figure quoted by my hon. Friend is the total net revenue under the account head, "1. Land Revenue, etc."; this includes land revenue proper, forests, and tributes from native States. The second figure, the cost of collection, is the sum of a large number of items which are given in detail on pages 37 to 39 of the Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Government of India for 1919–1920. This figure includes a large proportion—which is generally 70 per cent.—of the salaries of the superior officers in charge of the general administration of India, and also the cost of many subordinate officials and establishments. These officers and officials carry out many duties unconnected with the collection or assessment of land revenue. The distribution of the cost has been made, as a matter of convenience for accounts pur- 1115W poses, on an arbitrary basis; and it certainly does not now represent the actual cost of the collection of land revenue. It would be impossible, for example, to allocate with any approach to accuracy the amount, debitable to land revenue, of the salary of the district officer, whose multifarious activities cover every branch of administration in India. I would add that the apportionment of the cost of establishments in India, as between "land revenue" and "law and justice," was made many years ago, at a time when land revenue work was very much more important than it is to-day; and it is possible that, when the division was first made, it represented with a fair approach to accuracy the relative cost. Land revenue work is now a comparatively minor branch of the activities of the district officer and of his staff.