Assam govt invites suggestions on draft tea policy

Guwahati, Oct 20 (KNN) Assam Industries and commerce minister Bimal Borah on Wednesday met with Industry stakeholders to take in suggestions for formulating the Assam tea policy.

During the meet, the ministry presented the draft proposal of Tea policy which has components such as replacements of old plants and machinery, financial assistance for opening tea boutiques, new blending and packaging industries, participating in trade fairs national and international, Quality Certification for ISO/HACCP, Organic Tea Certification of the factory, export support for sending tea directly from Assam to overseas country etc.

Addressing the meeting, Borah reassured all the stakeholders that the government is determined to work on improving the condition of tea estates in the state.

Addressing the meeting, P K Bhattacharjee, Secretary General, Tea Association of India (TAI) stated that the most important task before the industry is to increase the per capita consumption of tea. He stated that since Assam contributes more than 50 per cent of the country's production, the responsibility to upscale the quantity of consumption therefore weighs heavily on the Assam tea industry and sought for a proactive policy towards this objective.

TAI also urged the government to integrate the various schemes under the national flagship schemes to be integrated in the tea policy of Assam. Concepts like flexible employment, code of wages, occupational safety and health code were cited as the legal provisions to be relied upon. With regards to generic promotions of tea, TAI urged the government to build up a corpus through which such activities could be initiated.

“At present Tea Blending and Packaging unit is not covered under Assam Industrial Policy. Hence most of the packeteers are purchasing the teas from Assam and packeting it in their States; If the Assam government gives a conditional exemption of (Assam Tea purchased and blended and Packaging units established in Assam) they will be entitled to get all the benefits of Industrial policy. This will bring huge investment, employment and development of Infrastructure and will create a goodwill impacting higher price realization of Assam tea,” said Dinesh Bihani, Secretary, Guwahati tea buyers Association.

He also highlighted that in order to attract more teas to the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre and make it the world's largest auction centre, the government should make policies which incentivizes good tea producers and encourage them to sell their produce through Guwahati Auctions.

Assam is India’s largest tea producer with more than 10 lakh tea workers in the organised sector, working in about 850 big estates. It produces more than 50 per cent of the country’s tea. (KNN Bureau)