The Tea Board of India on Tuesday said it has deferred, to June 23, the start of pan India e-auction due to "some post settlement issues".
"We have deferred the pan India e-auction for two days. There are some post settlement issues which are pending before state's VAT authority. Industry players sought clarification. We are open to it," Tea Board of India Chairman Santosh Sarangi told IANS.
"With the sale number 25, the pan India e-auction process will start from June 23 in all auction centres as per the new module but the post settlement banking operation will be done as per the existing process until we sort it out," he said.
The board in a statement said the post settlement portion of the auction would be implemented shortly after carrying out certain modifications in the system as per the feedback received from stakeholders.
There are some glitches in post sales settlement," said Indian Tea Association's vice chairman Azam Monem.
"We sought clarification on value added tax and input tax credit and asked to redesign the payment challan," said an industry source on condition of anonymity.
In the existing centre specific e-auction, there are two settlement bankers - the State Bank of India and the IndusInd Bank. The board chose one settlement banker - Bank of India - in the new system.
"We have made a request to have a common settlement account instead of a one bank account. The board has acknowledged it. They (board) may examine it and in due course, we hope they will adopt two vendor policy," Monem said.
The board said the actual auction of tea through pan India e-auction system was planned on June 21, 22 and 23 at different auction centres. In Kolkata, Guwahati and Cochin auction centres, sale 25 was scheduled on June 21, in Coimbatore and Siliguri the sale was scheduled on June 22 and at Coonoor it was fixed for June 23," it said.
Pan India e-auction was launched on May 9.
--IANS
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