The Tea Board of India has announced formation of a six-member committee that will study the problems which are plaguing the century-old Darjeeling Tea industry and will come up with recommendations as to how they can be resolved.

S. Soundararajan, the director of tea development of the board, issued a letter on Wednesday, saying a committee had been formed earlier with officials of the board to look into the issues affecting the hill tea industry, including import of Nepal tea.

“The committee has mentioned that to maintain and upgrade the quality of Darjeeling Tea, a committee of producers and scientists need to be formed so that a strategy can be drawn,” said a source in the Tea Board.

Accordingly, a “committee on Darjeeling tea” has been formed to come up with suggestions so that appropriate measures can be taken for improvement of the industry.

The committee would have Soundararajan as a member, along with prominent tea planters and representatives of tea associations, says the letter issued yesterday.

In the hills, there are 87 estates which produce the world famous Darjeeling tea. The annual production is close to 10 million kilos.

However, over the past few years, stakeholders of Darjeeling tea industry and even the Parliamentary standing committee on commerce had mentioned that the unbridled influx of Nepal tea is affecting the industry.

“As there is no import duty on teas brought from Nepal (unlike Nepal that charges 40 per cent import duty on Indian teas), thousands of kilos of teas from the neighbouring country are being brought into the country. A portion of these are re-exported to other countries. This is damaging the reputation of Darjeeling tea,” said a senior tea planter in Siliguri.

To stop the practice, a number of tea associations have sent letters to the Centre, seeking a check on such imports and also advocating imposition of import duty on Nepal teas.

The tea board, sources said, has mentioned that members of the committee have been asked to submit their suggestions and views by the middle of this month.

“After that, a meeting would be held to deliberate on those suggestions. The board is keen to work for the improvement of the Darjeeling tea industry,” said an official.