• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Kolkata, March 11 Mr Sashank Prashad, President of Tea Association of India (TAI), while addressing the 37th annual general meeting of the Barak Valley chapter of the association at Silchar, stressed the need for special concessions for the tea gardens located in the valley.

“The dismal situation of the tea industry in Barak Valley is reflected in the closure of a number of tea factories and gardens, accumulation of unpaid statutory dues and absence of routine development work in the estates,” Mr Prashad observed. “The failing health of this crisis-ridden industry in the valley has been further accentuated by the floods in succession in last year”.

The special concessions for the Barak Valley tea gardens, he felt, should include exemption from payment of green leaf cess at 29 paise per kg for at least three years, total stay on the proposed increase in the rates of land revenue for the tea garden lands, deferment by three years of the collection of statutory dues on account of arrear cess, VAT, land revenue, agricultural income-tax and also Provident Fund dues.

They should also include grant of transport subsidy at par with that prevailing for tea gardens located in other parts of the State for transportation of inputs into the gardens. The subsidy should also cover the transportation of teas produced in the valley to auction centers, he said.

More Stories on : Tea

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Weeding out

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line