A section of the tea industry is fuming over a government order that mandates 70 per cent sale through auctions.
The government diktat brought together many associations of bought leaf producers who held a meeting at Dibrugarh yesterday.
Though they agreed to abide by the commerce ministry’s order, the bought leaf producers decided to press their case against the rule in New Delhi.
Gautam Beria, vice-chairman of the Assam Bought Leaf Tea Manufacturers’ Association, said, “We have met the Union ministry officials in New Delhi and they have assured us that they will make a move on the matter soon. As of now, we have advised all bought leaf manufacturers to abide by the law as we do not believe in lawlessness.”
The associations claim that an auction centre has the capacity to handle up to 200 million kg of tea per year. This means that they need to be revamped.
Moreover, the Tea Board requires buyers purchasing through the auction route to withhold their payments for up to 14 days. Representatives of bought leaf tea associations also said leaving the estate factories out of the auction ambit was highly discriminatory because 25 per cent of their annual production came from green leaves purchased from small growers.
The associations said the Tea Board had notified a price sharing formula for the manufacturers and small growers in the ratio of 35:65, which the estates were flouting.
“If the Tea Board wants transparency in price realisations for meeting the requirements of the price-sharing formula, then the requirement of 70 per cent sales through public auctions, should apply to all registered manufacturers buying green leaves,” Deven Singh, chairman of AIMO-Tea Division said.
A senior official of an estate factory said, “We do buy green leaves from small tea owners and abide by the price-sharing rules as well which makes these allegations baseless.”
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