History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c62.432.1

v4.c62.432.1

Śulka is of two kinds, what is levied on goods carried by land and what is levied on goods carried by water (Mit. on Yāj. II. 263). Gaut. X. 26 and Viṣṇu Dh. S. III. 29 state that the śulka is 1/20th part on merchandise for sale (bought and sold in the country itself) which is interpreted by some (like Haradatta and Nandapaṇḍita) as meaning that 5 per cent of the price of articles sold should be taken by the king as tax, while the Rājanītiprakāśa (p. 264) explains that the king is entitled only to five per cent of the difference between the cost price and the sale price of merchandise. Manu VIII. 398 also is susceptible of these two interpretations, as the commentaries of Medhātithi and Kullūka show. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. (III. 29-30) prescribes that the king takes one-tenth on merchandise produced in his own country and one-twentieth on goods imported from a foreign country. Yāj. II. 261 says that the śulka on goods is twentieth part of the prices of the goods. Kauṭ. (II. 21) in his chapter on the superintendent of tolls (śulkādhyakṣa) sets out several rules, of which a few interesting ones are given here.