CO885-(6-7) — Page 7

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

9

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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"for imports on the bills of entry, and for exports "on the shipping bills, which every importer and '" exporter must put in when landing or shipping goods. These documents are prescribed by the "Sea Customs Act VIII. of 1878, section 29 of "which requires that the quantity and value of goods shall be truly declared; the value being, " under section 30 of the Act, the wholesale value at the place of import or export, less trade dis- "count. These declarations are subject to scrutiny in all cases, whether the goods are dutiable or not, " and the Collector of Customs has the power to "examine any goods at any time, and call for "invoices or other documents where he doubts the accuracy of declarations. Importers and exporters 16 are liable to penalties for falsc declarations, whether We consider that "the goods are dutiable or not. "this is the true principle on which valuations "should everywhere be based, and we would suggest "the general adoption of the system throughout the

Empire."

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And in a semi-official communication addressed to one of our members from the Finance and Commerce Department of the Government of India the following passages occur:—

"The ultimate basis of the values is the declara- tion which must be put in by the owner, called a bill of entry in the case of imports, and a shipping bill in the case of exports see section 29 of the Sea Customs Act VIII. of 1878. No goods may be landed or shipped, or water-burne to be shipped, unless one of these documents has been put iù.

«The value assigned to the goods is prescribed in section 30 of the Act. As regards both imports and exports the value is the wholesale cash value at the place of import or export, minus duty, that is, the duty, if any, is not taken into account. For instance, our duty of Rs. 6 a gallon does not enter at all into the valuation of imported spirit, nor does the export duty of 3 annas a maund enter into the valuation of rioc.

"The value being the value at the place where these documents are entered, it obviously includes freight and all other charges on imports up to the time they are landed, these being factors in the price of the goods. For the same reason the valuation of exports does not include freight from the port of shipment, though of course it does include freight to the port of shipment. Thus, cutch brought by sea from Rangoon to Calcutta, 'or tea brought by sea from Chittagong to Calcutta, or wool brought to Bombay from Karachi, is valued at price at port of shipment (Calcutta or Bombay), which includes cost of freight from Rangoon, Chittagong, or Karachi. Similarly with all goods brought down to the port of shipment from the interior. But the freight from the port of shipment does not enter into our calculations.

We do not depend entirely on the documents You will observe that section put in by the owners. 49 of the Sea Customs Act gives the Collector power to call for any documents or information for the purpose of verifying the declaration in case of doubt.. Sections 194 and 196 of the Act further empower the Customs authorities to open and examine any

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packages and to take samples. These powers were given with special reference to statistical as well as to fiscal purposes, and they are regularly exercised when there seems to be occasion to do so. They were no doubt more freely exercised before the import duties were-repealed in 1882, but we keep the Customs officers so much on the alert in the matter of correct values, constantly questioning them when the returns come in if there are entries that seem obviously inaccurate (and I may say that not a month passes without some such references), that the Custom House staff is, on the whole, careful enough not to accept really inaccurate declarations. Such a large proportion of our imports and exports consists of articles which do not vary in quality, and have almost standard values, that inaccuracies are, in the main, easy of detection. That there are inaccuracies is certain. This must necessarily be the case where all packages are not examined, but it is, I think, alsó pretty certain from the nature of the trade that our inaccuracies are of smaller importance than in many other countries where trade runs so extensively in small miscellaneous lines, and appraisement is a work

greater intricaey

of

"I do not think that I can suggest any improve- ment on our system of valuation, or that any change in it should be made. It is the best I can think of, and I hope it will be adopted everywhere else, so as to admit of effectual comparison of statistics."

The Government of India have recognised the importance of uniformity with the British system of their own as regards the denomination of articles of import and export.

These are ranged under the following principal.

classes :-

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I. Animals, living.

II. Articles of food and drink.

III. Metals, and manufactures of.

IV. Chemicals, drugs, medicines and narcotics,

and dyeing and tanning materials.

V. Oils.

VI. Raw materials and unmanufactured articles. VII. Articles manufactured and partly manu-

⚫factured.

There are also sub-classes, notably, under VII, 'yarns and textile fabrics"; while under each heading or sub-heading individual articles are ranged alphabetically.

There are plainly some details in respect to which there cannot be entire identity of classification in the returns of different countries, but as far as this is possible the benefit arising from the easy comparison of statistics is obvious. In the case of India the finishing touch, it is believed, has been recently imparted to the assimilation to the Board of Trade statistics by the transfer of the item of “dynamite" from the bead of " chemical" to that of “ arms and ammunition." Variation from the English acOOMMMĖS in any such respect was doubtless felt to be at least possibly productive of inconvenience.

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