NEW DELHI, July 12 - The crisis in the tea industry has taken a heavy toll with a record number of 96 tea gardens including 17 in Assam having closed down affecting over 28,000 workers during the last three years. Disclosing this Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, EVKS Elangovan said that though 41 of them have since reopened 55 continued to remained closed. The gardens were located in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Tripura. According to the written reply furnished in the Rajya Sabha, in Assam six of the 17 closed gardens have reopened, while rest of the 11 continue to remain abandoned. The highest number 50 gardens were closed in West Bengal, where 29 of them have since reopened.
Meanwhile, the Minister said that Government of India had taken up the problems being faced by the workers of the tea gardens with the concerned State Governments for intervention and necessary relief. Some State Government like West Bengal and Kerala have taken steps to provide relief to the affected plantation workers and their families. The plantation crops mainly tea and coffee have been affected due to the fall in the prices during the last few years. A package of Special Tea Term Loan (STTL) has been announced recently, which envisages restructuring of outstanding term and working loans in the tea sector with repayment over five to seven years and a moratorium of one year.
The STTL provides for working capital up to Rs 2 lakh at a rate not exceeding nine percent to small growers. Besides government has issued orders regarding implementation of a price subsidy scheme for small tea growers for a period of four months from February to May, the Minster said. The Tea Board is also implementing a price sharing formula between small tea growers and manufacturers of made tea with effect from April. A special fund has also been set up out of collections by way of additional duty of excise of Re 1 per kg on tea for development, modernisation and rehabilitation of tea plantation sector, the Minister said.
In addition, the Government has also set up Price Stabilisation Fund with a corpus of Rs 500 crore for the benefit of tea, coffee, rubber and tobacco growers, Sri Yadav said. Meanwhile, the Commerce and Industry Minister has ruled out restricting sale of tea through auction centres. The small and medium growers produce un-processed tea leaves, which is sold as raw material either to bought leaf factories or estate factories for processing. The auction centres do not handle un-processed tea leaves. The manufacturers have the option to sell their tea either through auction or through non-auction route, the Minister said.
But he added that the Government has taken several measures to encourage tea manufacturers to take the route of auction. The Tea Board has issued directions on auction rules for implementation with a view to reduce transaction time and cost of selling and buying of tea through auction, ensuring competition in auction system, enhancing the speed of auction to handle maximum volume and faster disposal of tea, besides introduction of electronic auction to ensure greater transparency, the Minister said.