Mughal Administration c9.s5.5

c9.s5.5

The low salaries paid by the Government had necessarily to be supplemented by the clerks and other subordinates exacting unauthorized fees from the men who had to do business with them. It was called “the writer’s fee” *haqq-ul-taharir* (or *tahariri* as used in the law courts and some other offices here even now). In the Manual (page 74) the auditor (mushrif) is advised, "Take the writer's fee that the people pay you willingly, for how else can a man deserving Rs. 50 but paid a salary of Rs. 20 a month contrive to live?"