Economy / Assam

Silchar, May 28: The beleaguered tea industry in the Barak Valley region has appealed to the Tarun Gogoi government to review its minimum wage notification for tea workers issued on February 1 last year. In particular, the tea estates in the Barak Valley, comprising Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts, have spurned a recent Assam government move to usher in parity in the payment of daily-rated wages between tea workers in the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys.

Both the Indian Tea Association (ITA) and the Tea Association of India (TAI) made this clear at a high-level discussion with the...

DISPUR, May 15 – The Committee on State Public Sector Enterprises (SPSE) in its meeting held recently with the management of APOL (Assam Polyester Co-operative Society Ltd) in the presence of authorities concerned of the co-operative Department and ASEB sorted out regarding reconnection of powerline to APOL and payment for energy bill which is to be as per the revised connected load as approved by the ASEB.

The Chief Engineer, P&D and RE, who represented the Chairman, ASEB, will submit his report to the Chairman, ASEB, on the facts stated above and gave an assurance to help APOL on...

Guwahati, March 7: The Assam government will soon set up trade offices of the neighbouring countries here. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi said this during an interaction with the foreign participants today ? the concluding day of the 11th International Guwahati Trade Fair at the Judges Field.

?We want to develop trade ties with the South East Asian countries. This will help promote trade and commerce and develop contacts with the traders of these countries,? Gogoi said.

After a t?te-?-t?te with them, the chief minister, accompanied by his wife, went on a whirlwind tour of all the foreign stalls...

Silchar, Feb. 25: The Cachar Chah Sramik Union (CCSU) is gearing up for a showdown with tea companies in south Assam. The Intuc-affiliated trade union is the largest organisation of tea labourers in the gardens of Cachar region. It has been demanding immediate payment of the daily-rated wage hike under the third tranche of enhanced wages for Cachar plantation workers that came into force on June 1 last year.

This daily wage hike was a component of a four-part wage increase as envisaged in an agreement signed between the Consultative Committee of the Plantations Association (CCPA), the apex...

Jorhat, Feb. 21: Suspected United People?s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) militants today abducted two tea executives from a private garden of Karbi Anglong district, further complicating the security scenario in the strife-torn hill district of Assam.

Sources said Bhagawati Tea Estate manager Sarat Dutta and his assistant Kumar were abducted around 8.30 am. The garden falls under Bokajan police station in the district.

Both Dutta and Kumar were inspecting the garden on a motorcycle when a group of six or seven suspected UPDS militants whisked them away. Kumar was to formally join the garden on...

Jorhat, Feb. 21: The chairman of the Assam Tea Planters Association (ATPA), Prabhat Bezbaruah, today said the tea industry should restructure the perks enjoyed by the executives in view of the stiff challenge from small tea growers.

Addressing the 114th annual general meeting of the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association at the Gymkhana Club here, Bezbaruah said: ?The working methods of the organised gardens have to be restructured to compete with the stiff challenge from the small growers and bring down the cost level.? The present managerial structure, especially in the organised sector...

TEZPUR, Feb 15 ? The Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), popularly known as the ?Assam Accord Refinery?, which was included in the Accord signed on August 15, 1985, as a part of the Centre?s economic package for speedy development of Assam, is now trying to export its products, to geographically contiguous countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar, according to BK Das, Managing Director, NRL.

Talking exclusively to this correspondent at Tezpur University complex, Das said being logistically easy to access through road, rail and river routes, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar are a natural...

Silchar, Feb. 12: The tea industry in Assam has pleaded for ?restricting any further expansion of the areas under tea,? in a bid to correct the excessive supply of tea crop in the market. It also stressed the need to improve the labour productivity as part of the cost-cutting exercise and the ?rationalisation of manpower?.

Addressing the 103rd annual general conference of the Surma Valley branch of the Indian Tea Association (ITA) here today the ITA chairman C.K. Dhanuka said the urgency came in the wake of a persistent plummeting in the prices of tea crop and the simultaneous spiral in the...

GUWAHATI, Feb 10 ? In view of the Union Finance Ministry announcing a subsidy upto Rs 8 per kg to small tea growers from February for four months, the Tea Board of India is trying to prepare a comprehensive data on the volume of green leaf grown by small growers.

The Tea Board while drawing up the scheme for payment of the subsidy announced for registered small growers having holding upto 10-12 hectares has asked all tea producers? associations to collect information through their member gardens on green leaf purchase made by them during 2003 in order to prepare comprehensive data on green...

GUWAHATI, Feb 9 ?The Federation of Industries and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) has submitted a pre-budget memorandum to the State Government demanding rationalisation of the tax structure and widening of the tax net in the State. In the memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who holds the Finance Portfolio, the Federation suggests that the Sales Tax department in the State should initiate a special drive for registration of all eligible dealers in the State in order to widen the tax net.

The FINER is of the opinion that existing small number of registered dealers in...