Taxation in Atjeh — beginning with the hacil, the export duty on pepper and rice inherited from the sultans’ government, and half a dollar per exported picol of coffee (1878) — formed the revenue spine of the Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, from the emergency reductions of 1878, 1882 and the Sigli licence system of July 1894 to the regularized export duties of the shipping regulation, the duty-reductions under Governor Van Daalen, and the modest per-capita burden (one guilder a head, two days of statute labour a month) of Governor Swart.
The hacil
In 1878 the native population of the territories brought under Dutch authority began to pay indirect taxes: “Men liet hacil betalen van peper en rijst, welke uitvoerbelasting afkomstig was van het soeltansbestuur” — hacil was collected on pepper and rice, an export duty inherited from the sultans’ government — while beside it the Dutch authority levied half a dollar per exported picol of coffee. Against this stood the financial support to the budding native cultures, as the advance of f 2,500 to the people of Lehong (1877) for the extension of their pepper and coffee gardens. Under the influence of the Dutch administration, for some landscapes on the East Coast of Atjeh the hacil on pepper was reduced from f 50 to f 35 per picol, “waarmede de handel ten zeerste was gebaat” (“whereby trade was very greatly benefited”). Emergency uses of the proceeds included the grant of 500 dollars in March 1882 for the Modjopahit pepper gardens ravaged by robbers.
Licence systems and the shipping regulation
At Sigli, as a temporary measure, a licence system with an extraordinary hacil levy upon the export of products was introduced in July 1894, having for consequence that the population of the Pidië tract — closed for the coasting trade — “his toevlucht no longer needed to take to the clandestine trade-transport over land to Meureudoe and thence over sea to Lho Seumawè”. The scheepvaartregeling (1892–1897) gave the system its general form: at a few well-situated harbours, where both a military post and a civil official were established, customs personnel placed there by the Government levied in- and export duties on the several products and paid these to the chiefs entitled; “but those moneys would be withheld from them as soon as it appeared that they did not keep to the agreement concluded with them” — a lever against unfaithful chiefs. Of Van Daalen’s administration it is recorded that the regulation and reduction of the heavy export duties on pepper — separately and differently arranged in every landscape of the Dependencies — attended his traffic policy; and of Swart’s first measures, that the chiefs were repaid the share of the in- and export duties and excises withheld from them “allegedly for their punishment”, and their imposed surety sums refunded (see H. N. A. Swart).
The burden under Swart
“Steeds werd er voor gezorgd, dat de belastingen en heerendiensten de bevolking niet zwaar drukten” — care was always taken that the taxes and the statute labour did not press the population heavily: the average tax yield per head was only one guilder, while per month the population, both in Groot-Atjeh and in the Dependencies, needed to turn up for only two days of compulsory labour; moreover the sub-department chiefs were permitted, by way of trial, to let the statute labour be redeemed in money. The tax moneys paid by the population were made clear to be spent, from the sub-department- and landscape-treasuries (introduced in the self-governing landscapes of the Dependencies), for all sorts of works of public utility. From 1 January 1919 no statute labour might be demanded for the motorable main roads of Groot-Atjeh or for the Koeta Radja–Medan connecting road (see A. G. H. van Sluys).
The yield, 1908–1917
Langhout’s figures of the rising yield: in- and export-duties and excises brought nearly f 180,000 in 1908, more than half a million in 1915, and nearly f 612,000 in 1917; the personnel and income taxes yielded f 17,000 and f 62,000 respectively in 1908, against f 30,000 and f 105,000 in 1917; the tax on business and other incomes yielded nearly f 22,000 in 1908 and over f 171,000 in 1917 for the non-native population, and f 225,000 in 1908 against f 530,000 in 1917 for the native population. The opium- and gambling-farm receipts are treated under Opium and gambling farms in Atjeh.
See Also
- Scheepvaartregeling in Atjeh
- Opium and gambling farms in Atjeh
- H. N. A. Swart
- G. C. E. van Daalen
- Pepper cultivation and trade in Atjeh
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 37–40, 48–49, 61–63, 71, 89, 98, 103–104, 111, 121.