Tea Board has issued showcause notices to 16 biofertiliser and eight instant tea factories located in different parts of South India for alleged violations of statutory requirements.

Four teams of board officials conducted inspections and discovered several deviations from the Board’s regulations,” Tea Board Executive Director M Balaji said.

“These units have not maintained statutory records properly. They failed to produce relevant details on the sale of their end products,” the ED said.

“Their manufacturing activities were not carried out in accordance with the terms set in their licences. Besides, they have not filed returns properly,” he said.