In a bid to encourage Assam's tea industry towards producing more export-quality orthodox tea, Assam Finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Friday announced to add more subsidies for those choosing orthodox over CTC teas, along with the ones the Tea Board of India, Assam provides.
Mr Sarma said the subsidies are being rolled out keeping in mind that the CTC (Crush, tear, Curl) variant of tea is cheaper to make than the orthodox - traditional method that includes plucking, withering , rolling, oxidation and drying - method of processing tea.
"The tea Board already provides a subsidy of Rs 3 per kg for the production of orthodox tea to which, Assam government will add another Rs 7 taking the subsidy breather to Rs 10 total for the orthodox producers. Since the orthodox teas produced in Assam are of export quality and most of it gets exported outside, this will generate more revenue to the tea growers," Mr Sarma in a media interaction at Janata Bhawan in Guwahati said.
He also said that the state will bear 25 per cent of the capital investment into purchasing machineries to those tea growers who would wish to switch to orthodox from CTC.
The subsidies comes at a time when the Assam's tea industry has received a major blow due to COVID-19 pandemic during which operations were shut down for over three months.
Minister Sarma has also announced two more packages for the tea industry to help it revive.
"If a tea industry or grower applies for a loan from any commercial bank as working capital, Assam government will provide 3 per cent of subvention over the interest per year up to the total ceiling of Rs 20 lakh. Tea garden owners will also get a tax holiday for three years from paying agriculture income tax," Mr Sarma added.
He appreciated that the tea garden owners, despite halt in their production, had paid salaries to its workers and said the packages were introduced to encourage them to pay Durga Puja bonuses of 20 per cent to their workers like every year.
"All Assam tea Corporation workers will be provided 20 per cent Puja Bonus that will go from the state exchequer as the corporation it self's condition isn't too great. I believe the other tea garden owners will also follow the suit," Mr Sarma further said.
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