 "Bengal govt considers interest subventions for loans to tea industry")
The West Bengal government is willing to provide interest subventions for loans to the tea industry from the Rs 100 crore corpus under the West Bengal Tea Plantation Employees Welfare Fund, 2015, the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) said, after a meeting with the group of ministers.
The Fund provides for interest subventions and soft loans to mitigate costs on tea estate housing, medical facilities, sanitation etc.
The government was represented by finance, excise, commerce & industries minister, Amit Mitra, public health engineering & rural development minister, Subrata Mukherjee, school education, parliament affairs minister, Partha Chatterjee, agriculture minister, Purnendu Basu, North Bengal affairs minister, Goutam Deb. The meeting with the state representatives happened to be a first for the industry.
The CCPA, on its part, has sought the government's assistance in introducing NRHM in tea estates, diversification of land use for alternate crops, tourism and rationalisation of power tariff.
"The discussions centred around the failing health of the industry and the government's positive interventions at reviving the industry. The cyclical nature of prices based on supply and demand has caused unremunerative price realisations for majority of the estates. This remains a matter of concern for the industry in view of prices not keeping pace with the rising cost of production," a CCPA statement said.
The industry is also facing significant cost on account of replanting and rejuvenation of old bushed. The average cost for replanting two per cent of the area under tea is Rs 4.50 a kg. This, coupled with costs associated with upgradation and modernisation of factories has necessitated a net margin of Rs 10.50 a kg for sustainability.