| Havana | Province | 90.84 | per cent. |
| Matanzas | “ | 89.72 | “ |
| Santa Clara | “ | 87.73 | “ |
| Pinar del Rio | “ | 78.34 | “ |
| Santiago de Cuba | “ | 66.59 | “ |
| Puerto Principe | “ | 93.65 | “ |
“The last-mentioned province gives such a good result (notwithstanding the very great difficulties in collecting, over only five municipal districts which are on a very large area of land), because the capital of the province and the city of Nuevitas afforded a splendid revenue. In the province of Santiago de Cuba the collection is harder than in any other, on account of the scarce and bad roads and means of communication.
“In the lists of collection of ‘Industrial Subsidy’ in the province of Havana, there appears a great number of taxpayers who have not existed for many years and whom, nevertheless, the administration continues to keep on its records, because every new administrator is reluctant to confess that the taxpayers have decreased during his time of office.
“There are reasons to suspect that there are concealments of taxpayers in the city estates list. A new record (catastro), made by an intelligent and honest administration, would surely give a rise in the collection of taxes.
“The collection of taxes is in charge of the Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba, which has branches at Matanzas, Cardenas, Cienfuegos, Sagua, and Santiago de Cuba, and auxiliary offices at Puerto Principe and Pinar del Rio.
“The Island has been divided into groups of towns near those cities. The representatives of the Bank collect the taxes themselves in the cities where they live, and by delegates in the other towns.
“The actual contract signed by the Government and the Bank began in 1892-93, and holds good for ten years. The Bank receives as a commission 5 per cent. upon the total amount of the taxes to collect, presented by the public Treasury. As the Bank has no interference whatever, when the lists of taxes are made, it confines itself to collecting what the public Treasury declares in its own lists. The Bank, therefore, is merely an agent.
“City and country taxes are collected quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. Industrial Subsidy is only collected by quarterly receipts. Annual receipts are applied to the estates whose taxes do not exceed the sum of eight dollars a year; the semi-annual are for those that do not exceed the sum of ten dollars a year.
“The annual receipts and the receipts for the first six months of the year are collected jointly with the receipts for the first three months. The second six months’ receipts are collected with the second three months’. This explains why there is an increase in the collection of taxes in some places, during the first and second three months of each year. Some sudden increases happen also in some places in the ‘Industrial Subsidy’ during certain quarterly collections. This is due to the collection of receipts from some corporations which pay 12½ per cent. of their profits according to their balances. Railway companies pay 6¼ per cent. of their profits. State contractors pay ½ per cent.
“Taxpayers who do not pay their taxes at the time fixed for it are subject to the procedure called apremios, according to the rules of May 15, 1885, approved by the Government. When apremios are to begin, taxpayers are duly warned by mail, giving them time enough to pay their taxes before incurring trouble.