Economic viability of tea industry under threat: ITA

SNS, SILIGURI 11 NOVEMBER 2022: Chairperson of t he Indian Tea Association (ITA) Nayantara Palchoudhuri today said that economic viability of the industry is under threat owing to the "unsustainable increase" in the cost of production, highlighting the sustainability challenges confronting the tea sector.

Ms Palchoudhuri was addressing the ITA's 139th Annual General Meeting in Kolkata yesterday.  

In her address, Ms Palchoudhuri lauded the proactive role oft he Union finance minister for speeding up the process of improvement of banking infrastructure in tea garden areas, which has enabled gradual transition to digital payment of workers' wages. She also pointed out several issues and urged the minister to intervene, demanding inclusion of power, fuel and even natural gas under the purview of GST.

Inclusion of the tea sector under the preview of MSME schemes was her other point.

"A fiscal revival package for the Darjeeling tea sector needs favourable consideration as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce in its 171st report," a source said.

Notably, Chief Economic Adviser, Dr V Anantha Nageswaran and Chairman, Tea Board, Sourav Pahari, were present in the AGM, and both discussed the present Indian economy and various issues confronting the tea industry, respectively.

Ms Palchoudhuri thanked the Assam government for enhancing the orthodox incentive rate for Assam orthodox teas from Rs 7 to Rs 10 per kg under the Assam Tea Industries Special Incentives Scheme.

According to Ms Palchoudhuri, in West Bengal state, a new dimension on Corporate Social Responsibility has been added with the prevention of child trafficking initiative under the ITA-UNICEF project and the West Bengal government has supported it.