| £E. | |
|---|---|
| 1900 | 95,000 |
| 1901 | 155,000 |
| 1902 | 190,000 |
| 1903 | 200,000[7] |
But the conditions are so different that nothing can really be deduced from this comparison. The figures show clearly that the country is advancing steadily. The burden is lightly borne. It would be very easy to exact far more than this without any positive discontent, but it would be a most unwise policy to do so, for it would be at the expense of its future progress.
The taxes are no longer assessed by the district. The tribute from the nomad tribes is the only exception to the rule that the Government deals directly with the individual taxpayer. They are no longer collected by irregular and irresponsible bullies; they are payable at the most convenient seasons, and they are moderate in amount. So great a difference in detail is almost a difference in principle; but the names are the same. Of the whole collected the receipts from land-tax and ushur are about a quarter—i.e., about £50,000 a year. The land-tax proper is no longer levied according to the instruments of irrigation, but, as in Egypt, according to the acreage and situation of the irrigated fields. Land irrigable by wells and foreshore land irrigable by flood pays 20 piastres (4s.) per acre; land on the mainland irrigable by water-wheels and shadoofs, 30 to 40 piastres; and land on islands similarly irrigable, 50 to 60 piastres. All other lands—that is to say, lands which depend for their water-supply not on irrigation, but on rainfall—are taxed at the rate of 10 per cent. ad valorem on their produce. This tithe is called ushur. At first it was paid almost entirely in kind, but it is now collected as far as possible in money, and, as the money in circulation increases, payment in kind—a most inconvenient form of payment—will be altogether abolished. The date-tax—2 piastres (5d.) on every date-palm that has begun to bear fruit—is akin to the land-tax. It produces some £15,000 a year.
The land-tax in some form will be the staple of the future revenues of the Soudan. Every year as population increases and more land comes under cultivation it will form a larger proportion of the total receipts. In many of the remote parts of the country, owing to the great distances and the small number of officials, it is hardly yet in working order, but with improved organization all may be expected to bear their just share of taxation, and the receipts will benefit accordingly. Any large scheme of irrigation and cotton culture will, of course, send up this branch of revenue by leaps and bounds. Second in importance to the land-tax, and for the time being exceeding it, come the royalties charged on exports of gum, ostrich-feathers, ivory, india rubber, and a few other articles, at the rate of 20 per cent. by weight. The extraordinary growth of the gum-trade is mainly responsible for this item, which makes up another quarter of the taxation revenue. Ivory receipts can hardly be expected to come to very much, but ostrich-feathers and rubber will probably show a marked increase in future years.
Other minor receipts were estimated in the Budget for 1902 as follows:
| £E. | |
|---|---|
| Animal-tax | 9,500 |
| Tribute from tribes | 8,000 |
| Ferries and fisheries | 4,000 |
| Sale of salt | 1,530 |
| Stamped paper | 1,200 |
| Customs | 5,400 |
| Slaughtering dues and market fees | 5,200 |
| Road-tax | 2,000 |
| Rent of Government lands | 1,300 |
| Boat-tax | 1,000 |
All these taxes are familiar in the Soudan. Some of them, especially those small in their results—and there are a good number more of less importance than those named—will probably be abolished as soon as the country is able to stand the immediate loss. But as yet even the most objectionable in principle do not act as restrictions to trade. They only distribute the burden of a very light taxation, so as to make all classes contribute something, and the Government is still so poor that even a few hundred pounds are of very great importance.
The Customs are set down as producing only £E5,400, and this demands a word of explanation. £4,500 of this is taken at the port of Suakin, the remainder on the land frontier in Kassala and Sennar. The Customs on the land side, small as they are, show a steady increase; those at Suakin have been constantly decreasing, as trade is more and more diverted to the Nile Valley route. But all Customs duties on goods coming to the Soudan on this side are levied at the Egyptian ports, and retained by Egypt. The duties are 20 per cent. per kilo on tobacco, and 8 per cent. ad valorem on all other goods. In the year 1903 it is estimated that the sum thus retained by Egypt will amount to £E70,000, but this has not been taken into account in calculating the Soudan revenues.
As for the profit-earning departments, their profits are as yet invisible—invisible, that is, as far as their accounts are concerned, though visible enough in the increasing prosperity of the country. Still, the actual takings of the railway and the post and telegraphs mark progress. They stand for three years:
| Railways. | Post and Telegraphs. | |
|---|---|---|
| £E. | £E. | |
| 1900 | 38,412 | 7,900 |
| 1901 | 75,808 | 9,000 |
| 1902 | 85,000[8] | 11,000[8] |