Tea sector needs addressed: Percy Siganporia

Two major requests of the tea plantation industry have been addressed "" removal of additional excise duty at Re 1 per kg and thrust on incentives for replanting and rejuvenation.

These measures would contribute towards reduction in cost of production and address the viability of the plantation operations.

The decision to define a road map for agricultural diversification into fruit, flowers, dairy, fishery and so on will help in supplementing and increasing the returns of tea plantations.

The agricultural diversification along with credit availability through micro financial institutions will provide a source of alternate income to the tea workers and reduce corporate social cost burden.

The main enabler for growth of the branded tea business from this year's Budget has been the implementation of the VAT rate of 4 per cent across all states.

This is the one of the best news for the Tea Industry. The initiatives to promote agriculture, infrastructure and rural economy has a consequential lag impact of boosting demand for tea consumption.

A combination of measures in the financial sector will improve rural entrepreneurship and will open up distribution and product placement opportunities.

These will enable the FMCG operations to flourish for tea.