Tea Board should have authentic database of industry for subsidy: CAG

The government auditor CAG on Tuesday said that the Tea Board should have authentic database of the industry for formulation of policies and implementation of various subsidy schemes.

However, Tea Board did not maintain a database regarding areas of extensions of tea plantations, replacement and replanting of tea, age of tea bushes, district-wise yield, and labour productivity rate of the tea industry.

It also said that the board has disbursed subsidy amounting to Rs 12.87 crore without adhering to certain guidelines under various schemes such as Plantation Development Scheme, Quality Upgradation and Product Diversification Scheme and Orthodox and Green Tea Production Scheme.

It said that although the levy of fees for the issuance of planting permits was approved by the Board, non-collection of the same has resulted in the loss of revenue of Rs 41.36 lakh.

"Due to delay in implementation of provisions of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Tea Board did not collect the same on licenses fees, which resulted in loss of revenue of Rs 32.39 lakh to the government exchequer," CAG said in a statement.