The Rashtrakutas and their Times c18.s1.t1.18

c18.s1.t1.18

Octroi and excise duties were collected sometimes in kind and sometimes in cash. The taxes on butter and charcoal at Sirur(63) and Soratur(64) were collected in kind, but the octroi duties at Badami(65) and the customs dues at Kharepatan were collected in cash. The taxes collected in kind were very often assigned to local officers as shown already; this was inevitable, for the central government could hardly have managed to have at the capital a store of shoes, flowers, betel-leaves etc. that were paid as taxes in the distant villages of its empire. Even if a store had been opened there, most of these articles would have been rendered useless before they reached the depot. Epigraphical records do not supply any information about the percentage of the taxes we are discussing, but a number of writers like Manu, (VII, 131-2) Viṣṇu, (III, 33) Gautama (II, i, 30) and Kauṭalya (II, 21) lay down that the excise duty to be levied should be 16% in case of articles like fish, meat, honey, medicines, fruits.