Ease cash woes, planters tell banks

TT, 17 Aug 2019, Jalpaiguri: Representatives of tea planters' associations in the Dooars and officials of banks meet at the office of the district magistrate here on Friday to speed up cashless disbursement of wages and other monetary dues to garden workers.

After demonetisation, banks and tea estates started the transition from cash payment to going cashless. But the process stumbled because of a number of reasons, mainly the absence of banking infrastructure in tea gardens.

"As a whole, around half of the workforce in the Dooars does not have any bank accounts. In some gardens, the percentage of such workers is around 70 per cent. That is why, even now, tea companies have to pay dues like wages and bonus in cash," said S. Guha Thakurta, secretary of the Dooars branch of Indian Tea Association.

He also pointed out to the absence of banking infrastructure in tea gardens, such as ATMs.

A senior tea planter based in Jalpaiguri said so far, they were continuing with the old practice of cash payment but a recent decision by the Centre has left them concerned.

In her budget speech last month, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 2 per cent TDS on annual cash drawings of over Rs 1 crore from banks. Each tea garden needs to withdraw several crores of rupees for payment each year, which means they have to bear additional expenses.

"That is why, we want the banks to set up branches, ATMs, customer service points and similar infrastructure in tea gardens so that we can go cashless and workers does not turn reluctant to accept this change. Otherwise, the Centre should keep the tea industry out of the purview of this new rule," the planter said.

Sources said in Dooars, there are 154 tea estates where there are around three-andhalf lakh tea workers. Around half of them do not have bank accounts.

Also, there are 25,000 small tea plantations in Jalpaiguri district where there are around 40,000 small tea grow- ers. Hardly 50 per cent of them have bank accounts, said sources.

"Forget tea estates, there are some plantations which have to draw Rs 1 crore in a year to meet expenses. They will have to bear the additional cost of TDS," said Rajat Karji, president, Jalpaiguri Zilla Kshudra Cha Chashi Samiti.

At the meeting, bankers, including Debjit Sarkar, the lead bank manager of the district, were present.

"We have proposed setting up of ATMs, branches and other similar infrastructure in locations which can act as a common point for a number of tea estates or small tea plantations. Workers can get their wages transferred to bank accounts and can draw cash from these facilities, which would not be far from their place," said Sarkar.