Adding This Sum To The Unrealised
Claims, And Leaving A Margin For Default, The Receipts For The Year May
Be Taken At 8,352,000 Piastres, Or 72,000 Pounds Sterling.
The average
of the previous five years was 8,584,786 piastres, and they included
three years of scarcity.
The account rendered by the Ottoman Government
for the past year, 1877-78, exhibits the dimes or tithes at 12,500,595
piastres, but that was the amount of the year's demand, and the actual
realisations amounted only to 5,072,872 piastres. Looking to the
favourable conditions of the present year as compared with the past
year, the estimate of 72,000 pounds sterling may be accepted.
Tithes on Vakouf Lands.
The tenth part of the produce of vakouf lands, fields, and gardens is
appropriated for the maintenance of mosques, monasteries, tombs, and
other religious foundations. The tithes on vakouf lands are paid to the
Mutavelli, or local administrators of the vakoufs, who remit 20 per cent
to the Minister of the Evkaf at Constantinople, and retain the balance.
The Mutavelli are not required to account to any Government functionary
for the revenue of vakouf lands beyond the annual subsidy of 20 per cent
to the Evkaf. It is understood, however, that in many cases the objects
and purposes for which these vakouf lands were assigned have long since
ceased to exist, and thus not only are the pious intentions of the
founders frustrated, but a considerable public revenue is diverted into
private channels. The legal conditions attached to these vakouf lands,
and to the lands and other property in Cyprus claimed for the Ottoman
Crown and State (under Article IV of the Convention between Great
Britain and Turkey) are at present the subject of a special inquiry, and
the result will have an important bearing on the revenue to be hereafter
administered by the British Government. For the present year, the tithes
on vakouf lands have been farmed for 1,676 Turkish liras in the
districts of Famagousta, Kyrenia, Papho, and Limasol. No tithes have
been sold in the other divisions. As the tithes on vakouf lands do not
belong to the general revenues of the island, they are not included in
the estimate now submitted.
Verghis.
This tax is divided into three classes:--
1. Emlak verghisi, or impost on houses or immovable property,
at 4 per thousand on the purchasing value.
2. Impost of 4 per cent on the rent of immovable property, or
houses not occupied by their owners. The rent is assumed at io
per cent of the value.
3. Verghi temetu, or impost on professions and trades, at 3 per
cent on profits and salaries.
Before the beginning of each financial year, the district authorities
prepare statements designating the contributions required from each
village and town, according to the number of houses, the number and
means of the population. The assessment is made roughly, and the tax is
recovered by Moukhtars of villages, selected by the inhabitants and
confirmed by the district authorities.
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