The Hindu Business Line : Commerce Ministry keen on e-auction of cardamom

New Delhi May 3 Following the successful e-auction of tea at a limited level, the Department of Commerce is keen on extending e-auction to another important plantation crop, cardamom.

Official sources told Business Line that a road map for implementing e-auction of cardamom has been unveiled with the requisite development of software for electronic auction having been put in place by TCS, currently under testing.

The sources also said implementation at the Auction Centre, Cardamom Planter's Association, Bodinayikanur, which is the pilot centre, would be done this month.

Also, detailed testing on target hardware at the board's headquarters with sufficient number of bidder terminals and trial run before planters, auctioneers and bidders would also be done.

The sources added that changeover to e-auction system at the pilot centre would happen in July, while implementation at other centres would begin by August.

When contacted, Minister of State for Commerce Mr Jairam Ramesh said the decision was aimed at ensuring right price discovery to growers and in a transparent fashion, besides enabling better value realisation.

He said the system would help plug "collusive behaviour" in price fixation, besides broad-basing the system itself to the growers' advantage.

He also said e-auction of tea is currently being conducted at five of the six centres on a limited scale, except for Coonoor.

Officials conceded that there were software and communication glitches and change management issues with different levels of conversion to the electronic platform.

In Coonoor, there is 100 per cent live auction (both leaf and dust), while other centres in the South conduct 100 per cent live auction on leaf only.

In Siliguri there is 25 per cent of leaf, while there is no e-auction of tea in Kolkata.

Implementation of e-auction of tea on a limited scale has convinced the Tea Board that some changes would be required in the extant system; suggestions have been received to separate the tea portal and e-auction, even while retaining the features of the portal.

In the proposed auction system for tea, which would be in place by October on a bigger scale, the facility would be available for registered users with concurrent auction from all centres and all auctioneers and split second response.

The Department of Commerce would finalise two companies from the short-listed ones in a few days in this regard.

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