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Mare-aux-Vacoas to the three townships, to the rural districts of Plaines Wilberns and Moka, and in part to Port Louis. The main water supply of Port Louis is normally administered by the Muni- cipality, which still continues to collect the water-rate, although the supply has temporarily been taken over by the Government. The water supply of the rural districts is in the hands of the District Boards and is financed by local water-rates. A similar diversity of distribution is seen in the case of the sanitary and scavenging services. The Government at present manages the sanitary and scavenging services of Port Louis and the sanitary services of Curepipe, while both services are managed locally in Quatre Bornes, Beau Bassin and Rose Hill. In the rural dis tricts the Boards are responsible for branch roads and water supply. the Government for sanitation. The distribution of functions is reflected in the financial arrangements. The Municipality and the townships levy their own house rate and a tenant tax, but are exempt from the Government house tax. Each township is re- garded as entitled to the proceeds of the Government tax on vehicles and animals possessed and used within its area, and all licence duties paid by persons carrying on a business, profession, trade, or calling within its area, but these payments are commuted for an annual lump sum payment from the Treasury, which for Curepipe amounts to Rs.80,000, for Beau Bassin and Rose Hill Rs.76,000, and for Quatre Bornes Rs.27,000. The remaining
items of local revenue, water-rate and market dues are payments for particular services rendered to individuals rather than taxa- tion, and it will be seen, therefore, that the cost of most loca! services is in effect borne by the general revenues of the Colony. The only additional impost borne by the local taxpayer in his capacity of ratepayer is the tenant tax in the towns, which in the case of the smallest properties works out at about 23d. in the pound, and in the case of the largest properties about 1s. 2‡d. in the pound on the amount of the rent, or in the alternative the small house rate chargeable upon the owner who is not also the tenant.
9. A fair measure of the burden of general taxation may be obtained by examining separately the position of the individual tax- payer in each of the different economic classes of the community. This method has the further advantage of revealing the incidence of the burden. We shall take for our purpose the following repre- sentative cases :—
An agricultural or general labourer, or artisan;
A commercial clerk, or minor Government official;
A high Government official, doctor or barrister or estate manager;
A leading merchant, broker, or planter.
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Taxation of labouring classes.
The average wage throughout the year of the agricultural labourers, most of whom belong to the Indian community, may be taken as not more than 90 cents (1s. 4}d.) per day. During the crop season which extends from the end of August to December, the rate is higher and on a piece-work basis it is possible for a sicady worker, working for six days each week, to earn from Rs.1.25 to Rs.1.50 per day, but for the remaining eight months of the year his average rate is not likely to exceed from 50 to 60 cents per day. (These are the rates for day labourers. Monthly contract workers living on the estates are paid throughout the year at the rate of Rs.10 per month but are provided with quarters and with a food ration of 21 lb. of rice per month.) Many agricultural workers, however, are also owners of small plots of land of from one to three acres, and of their own houses which are straw or On this land the labourer timbered structures of small value.
usually keeps a cow and a number of poultry, grows a certain quantity of vegetables and bananas for his domestic consumption or for sale, and perhaps about half an acre of sugar cane. Both in his own garden cultivation and in his work in the fields he is assisted to a large extent by his wife and children, but the money earnings With the addition of these of his family are inconsiderable. auxiliary sources of livelihood the total money value of his income may be set down at not more than Rs.400, representing in English money about £81 a year. Artisans and urban labourers are mainly drawn from the Creole class. Wages of skilled artisans range from lis.2 to about Rs.3.50 a day, an average figure being about Rs.2.50. General labourers earn from about Rs.1.50 to Rs.2 a day, a fair indication being the pay of a Government messenger which is Rs.420 a year.
As the higher-paid workers among the labouring classes will be a minority of the total number an average family income of Rs.400 per annum may be taken as an outside estimate.
10. A family income of this amount, measured in English money at about £31 a year, might well be thought to be a fit subject for gentle treatment at the hands of the tax-gatherer, even in a country like Mauritius where the cost of the bare necessaries of life is cheap arcording to European standards. It is surprising, therefore, to see that it is against this class that so much of the fiscal system of Mauritius is directed, that it is this class alone which can be said to be heavily taxed in comparison with other countries. Assuming the case of an agricultural labourer, owning a house of two rooms (an average case), we find that he is called upon to make direct payments to the Government or the Local Authority of Rs.2 for house tax and Rs.2 for water-rate. An urban labourer with the same income would probably escape house tax as not being a house owner, but a minor artisan would be liable to an occupational licence of R.1.
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