CHAPTER XV.

                              EXISTING SYSTEMS DESCRIBED.

Systems of excise in the various
provinces.

591. The various systems of excise administration obtaining in the different
provinces have been described in the memoranda
which are published in Vol. III Appendices. A
brief notice of these systems will be reproduced here, and the question how far
they fulfil the conditions of the policy above noted will then be discussed.

Bengal.
Law in force.

592. The law in force in Bengal is contained chiefly in the Bengal Excise
Act, VII of 1878, and rules passed thereunder.
The principal provisions are as follows:—

Without a license from the Collector, the manufacture of ganja, charas, and
bhang, and every preparation and admixture of the same, and the cultivation of
plants from which they are produced, are prohibited (section 5).

No person is allowed to sell any of the above drugs or preparations or admix-
tures of them without a license from the Collector (section 11).

Fees for licenses for retail sale of the above drugs may be fixed by the
Board of Revenue, and will be payable accordingly (section 13).

No license fees are leviable for the privilege of wholesale vend. The limit
for retail sale is as follows: Ganja or bhang, or any preparation or admixture of
the same, one quarter of a sér; charas, or any preparation or admixture
of the same, 5 tolas weight. No licensed wholesale vendor is allowed to sell
by retail and no licensed retail vendor is allowed to sell by wholesale, but
the same person may hold a license for wholesale and retail vend. The Board
may fix a larger quantity as the limit for retail sale (sections 15 and 60).

No cultivator of the plants producing ganja or bhang may sell such plants,
or any ganja or bhang produced therefrom, to any one other than a person duly
authorized to purchase the same by pass or license from the Collector (sec-
tion 16).

No person, not being a licensed manufacturer or vendor or a person duly
authorized to supply licensed vendors, may have in his possession a greater quan-
tity of ganja, charas, and bhang, or any preparation or admixture of the same, than
that specified above as the limit for retail sale (section 17).

The penalty attached to the breach of this provision does not apply to
authorized cultivators (section 62).

The Board may, with the sanction of the Local Government, declare that the
possession of any foreign ganja, charas, or bhang, or any preparation or admixture
of the same, is absolutely prohibited in any specified tract, or that such posses-
sion shall be limited to specified quantities, unless a license has been granted
for the possession of a larger quantity of such article. The Board may fix the
fee or duty payable for such license (section 17-A). Under this section the limit
of legal possession of Garhjat ganja has been fixed at 5 tolas.

The Board, with the sanction of the Local Government, may frame rules for
prescribing the conditions under which ganja, charas, or bhang, or any preparation