ATC disinvestment; Govt yet to take final decision

GUWAHATI, March 27: The Assam Government is yet to take the final decision on disinvestment of the fund-starved Assam Tea Corporation (ATC). ATC sources said that the state government formed a committee headed by the Industries Commissioner to study the feasibility of disinvestment of the ATC. The committee comprising senior Government officials and persons connected with the tea industry has already submitted its report and the decision of the Government is awaited. Sources said that different organisations including the SBI Capital Finance, Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and the ICICI were approached with the proposal for conducting an assessment of the assets and liabilities of the Corporation but the organisations expressed their inability to do the job as they do not have much expertise on tea industry. Commenting on the present financial position of the Corporation, ATC sources said that at present the total liabilities amount to more than Rs 40 crore. The Corporation has been paying the wages of the labourers regularly but the salaries of the managers and office staff have not been paid for the last three to four months due to the financial crunch. The ATC paid bonus to the labourers at the rate of 8.33 per cent of the basic pay during Holi but the labourers have been demanding 20 per cent bonus, sources added. Giving the main reasons for the present state of affairs of the ATC, sources said that the Corporation managed to earn net profit for two consecutive years 1997-98 and 1998-99. During that period, past liabilities amounting to Rs 20 crore were cleared. But the draught like situation in 1999 affected production and the fall of tea prices in the past couple of years seriously affected the financial position of the Corporation. Sources said that because of the failure of the Corporation to repay the bank loans, the banks are also not releasing the working capital regularly, which aggravated the problem. The Corporation has been requesting the state government to clear its dues, but till date the Government has not been able to do so.