Tea Board puts payment module in e-auction on hold

The Tea Board of India has put the post-auction settlement module under pan India e-auction system on hold for four weeks starting from Tuesday, a Board circular said.

"..after detailed deliberation held in the meeting, it has been decided that the Pan India Post settlement module will be kept on hold for a period of four weeks w.e.f. 18th October 2016 or till further orders," Board said.

The Board officials met various stakeholders from the industry on Monday after associations of producers, traders and brokers raised their reservations on the post auction settlement module.

In September, the apex body of the country's tea producers Indian Tea Association (ITA) had said, "It has severely hampered post auction operations as the Settlement Bank and NSEIT, the facilitators of the e-auction system, have failed to interact in-depth with the auction organisers and grasp the requirements of the associated stake holders namely sellers, buyers, auctioneers and warehouses operating in the auction system."

However, the Board had also claimed that the payment settlement part of the Pan India e-auction of tea was "implemented successfully by Tea Board" in different auction centres of the country w.e.f. September 14.

In the system, Bank of India was selected as the settlement bank. But industry players raised several issues in the system developed by NSE.IT.

Board's latest circular, however, said, "...the post auction settlement process for sales happening on and from 18th October, 2016 will be carried out as followed till 12th September, 2016. However, the payments and settlements for auctions completed from 14 September to 14 October, 2016 will have to be routed through settlement bank under pan India e-auction module."

The pan India e-auction system was rolled out from sale 25 on June 23 with an objective to increase participation of many outside buyers other than registered buyers of a particular auction centre and also to connect all the seven auction centres located at Kolkata, Guwahati, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, Cochin, Coimbatore and Coonoor.

At present, nearly 534 million kg are sold through e-auction.

--IANS

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