STiR coffee and tea magazine

28 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 2 (April / May) State support The Assam State budget announced in March allocated Rs 5.5 billion ($66 million) for the tea industry in the 2023 fiscal year beginning on April 1. Among the provisions are: 1. An increase in an existing subsidy for production of orthodox and spe- cialty tea under a program known as ATSIS, rising to Rs 12 per kg, up sub- stantially from Rs 7–10 per kg before. 2. Exemption of agricultural income tax for the next three years. 3. Waiver of electricity dues for families of tea workers living in tea estates, with Rs 1.5 billion earmarked to cover this. 4. Increase in compensation under the Wage Compensation Scheme for Pregnant Women of Tea Garden Areas of Assam, rising to Rs 15,000, up from Rs 12,000. 5. Construction of 10,000 houses in tea garden workers' colonies, under a national program for affordable urban housing, Mukhya Mantri Awaas Yojana. 6. Construction of 500 community halls/skill centers in tea gardens. 7. Official recognition of the tea gardens and Adivasi community as a separate sub-category within the national government's Other Backward Classes designa- tion, under which social welfare promotion is guaranteed by the Constitution. 8. Roadshows throughout India to promote Brand Assam Tea to cele- brate the bicentennial year. A further Rs 1 billion has been earmarked to support the Assam Tea Cor- poration Limited (ATCL), a state-owned enterprise, to pay their outstanding liabilities of interest on the Provident Fund. These new items build on existing expenditures and programs. In 2021, the Assam government launched the Assam Tea Industries Special Incentive Scheme (ATSIS). Assam is producing more premium, certified, and specialty teas. This organic farm is in Sivasagar District. This three-year program gave producers an interest subsidy of 3% per annum on working capital loans and a subsidy of Rs 7 per kg for the production of orthodox and specialty varieties. To help upgrade machinery, the scheme provided a 25% subsidy for the purchase of new equipment for production of orthodox and specialty tea. AT- SIS also offered an exemption on agricultural in- come tax. Domestic market push Producers in Assam have been working to strengthen India's own tea market. Per-capita consumption rose in 2022 to 850 grams, up from 786 g. To sustain the momentum, the Assam gov- ernment announced a draft tea policy in October that proposed grants for opening tea boutiques in Assam and elsewhere. For producers, it offered a subsidy on costs of certifications. As the country's single largest tea-producing region, Assam seems to be taking charge of pro- motion of tea. NETA set up a tea lounge at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, the 50-year-old center at Guwahati, Assam. The lounge showcases the full range of Assam teas and promotes them to visitors. A tea park is being planned near Gu- wahati as a hub for tea exports. NETA has called for identification and conservation of sites that played a role in India's tea history. Among them are the Cinnamora Tea Estate, and gardens in Jorhat and Singling in Sivasagar, which were set up by Maniram Dutta Barua, India's first commercial tea planter. A tea museum is under construction in Guwahati. These projects and various tourism ventures are aimed at supporting consumer inter- est in Assam tea. Last year, the Ministry of Commerce, which oversees tea, issued a notice that the Tea Act of 1953 would be repealed and replaced with the Tea Promotion and Development Bill. This will shift the government's role away from functioning as a regulatory body, as it does now, toward promotion of the industry. Perhaps it will benefit Assam. Small and large In the tea sector throughout India, there is a gap between large and small producers. But in Assam, the two segments produce nearly equal amounts of tea. The state hosts 762 tea estates and 122,415 small tea growers, which are defined as those hav- ing a farm area of 10 hectares or less. Smallholders in Assam have been better regulated and collectiv- ized than their counterparts in other parts of India. However, estates still fetch better prices. Av- erage auction prices in 2022 were Rs 290 per kg of estate-produced orthodox tea, versus Rs 252 for orthodox produced by bought leaf factories (BLF). CTC averaged Rs 222 for estate-produced CTC, compared to Rs 166 per kg for BLFs. Woolah Tea

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