A parliamentary panel on commerce has called for routing more tea through the e-auction portal as only 44.16 per cent is routed now.

The committee, in its report placed in Parliament, said the coverage under e-auction portal was confined to about 40 per cent of the total tea production in India. It recommended that the percentage of tea routed through e-auction portal should be enhanced to include maximum tea growers.

The total tea production in the country climbed to 1,389.70 million kg in 2019 from 1,338.63 million kg in 2018. Assam’s tea production in 2019 was 715.79 million kg, which is an increase of 23.88 million kg compared to 691.91 million kg in 2018. The share of the big growers was 704.62 million kg and of the small growers 685.08 million kg. The figures for other areas revealed that Bengal’s tea production was up by 30.06 million kg in 2019 from 2018 while south India’s tea production went down by 5.83 million kg in 2019 compared to 2018.

Officials told the committee that the percentage of tea routed through auctions in 2018-19 was 44.16 per cent (approximately) of the production, leaving the rest of the tea to be marketed through private means.

To ensure fair price realisation through auctions, the Tea Board had introduced pan-India tea auction in 2016 across all major auction centres at Guwahati (Assam), Siliguri (Jalpaiguri), Coonoor and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and Cochin in Kerala.

The officials told the committee that the Tea Board was undertaking measures such as modernisation of e-auction infrastructure, technological knowhow and implementation of an IIM study conducted to improve the e-auctioning system in the country.

The committee said an efficient tea-auctioning process should be implemented in the country to synchronise with the global auction policies for better price realisation.

The tea industry had earlier said that digitisation of the auction system promised a reduction in transaction costs and fair price discovery. “While we have made the transition from the hammer to the mouse, much remains to be done to reduce transaction costs of auction sales,” it said.

Industry officials are hoping that the new auction centre, which will start operating in Jorhat next month, will lead to a better price discovery. “There will be more buyers and sellers, reduced transaction cost, automated catalogue management system and other new features to improve price discovery,” a tea board official said.

Demonstration: The All Assam Tea Tribes’ Students’Association (ATTSA) of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts staged a demonstration at Assam Branch Indian Tea Association zone-I office in Dibrugarh on Thursday, demanding a wage hike of Rs 400.

The workers raised slogans against the tea industry and the BJP-led government.

The tea garden workers in the Brahmaputra Valley are paid Rs 167 while the tea garden workers in Barak Valley get Rs 145 per day.

“The tea management is not giving the minimum wage or Sunday wages to workers. During elections, the government promised many things but forgot it all afterwards. The tea tribe community has been cheated and used by all parties,” said Lazar Nanda, a member of ATTSA central committee.

“The tea workers are deprived of the minimum wages. The tea management and the government has cheated them for several years,” Nanda said.

Additional reporting by Avik Chakraborty in Dibrugarh