Reform tea e-auction system: NETA asks Centre

The North East Tea Association (NETA) today asked the Centre to reform the tea e-auction system as it has not proved to be an efficient system for fair price discovery.
"All auction centres run this system as per their own whims and fancies... Sale dates and payment dates are deferred at their will and to remove these discrepancies the e-auction system must be reformed," NETA Chairman Bidyanand Borkakoty said in a memorandum submitted to Union Minister of State for Industry and Commerce (Independent charge) Nirmala Sitharaman here.
He pointed out that there were several opinions that e-auction system was doing more harm than good in fair price realisation as producers must have the liberty to sell their produce through any channel.

The NETA demanded setting up of a tea auction centre at Jorhat, closer to the main tea producing districts, and said a memorandum in this regard has been already submitted to the Union Minister through Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa.
The association also demanded that Tea Board should launch an electronic platform (similar to the e-platform of tea waste sale) for sale of tea.
The NSE.IT, which had developed the e-auction software for sale of tea through auction centres, had already done a lot of work in devising this system and this electronic platform would be different and in addition to the existing e-auction system, the memorandum pointed out.

The licence/registration under TMCO 2003 for setting up a new Estate Factory (EF) and Bought Leaf Factory (BLF) from the Tea Board should also be made online without any human interface.
The NETA also called for reform in the Plantation Labour Act (PLA) taking into consideration various welfare schemes of the Central and State governments.