Revamp of e-auctioning of tea delayed: Tea Board official

A senior Tea Board functionary on Thursday expressed concern over the delay in revamping of the old electronic auctioning system, as its officials related to the exercise were on leave.

The board had taken the initiative to revamp the existing electronic auctioning system for better price discovery, and appointed a consultant for this purpose.

"Most of the officials who are supposed to interact with the consultant are frequently on leave," a top official of the Tea Board told PTI.

The appointed consultant is an expert on auctioning and a professor of IIM (Bangalore), he said.

The issue of delay would be shortly brought to the notice of the PMO, the official stated, adding that the consultant had already interacted with industry people.

On the outlook for the tea industry, he said that prices are suppressed and remained flat since 2012.

"The prices are suppressed by market dynamics, although the input costs are going up," the official said.

"We need to pay the labourers a better wage, but not being able to do so due to muted prices," he said.

One option could be diversification into other crops for which permission of the concerned state governments were required.

The Assam government has given its go-ahead for such diversification, he said.