MNS:- Base price has not been fixed for selling tea in Assam. Tea being a perennial crop, green leaf is harvested in Assam for nearly 9 months in a year from March-December. During this period, because of the seasonal variations, quality of the green leaf would vary from month to month. Keeping this variation in view, a Price Sharing Formula (PSF) has been notified by the Tea Board as per the provisions of the Tea (Marketing) Control Order, 2003 for ensuring equitable sharing of sale price of made tea between the suppliers of green leaf and the manufacturers. This formula takes into account the cost of production of Green Tea leaf by the small growers, cost of manufacturing made tea by the bought leaf factories, and the out-turn percentage (i.e. the ratio of conversion of ‘Green Tea leaf’ into ‘made tea’). Thus the green leaf price payable to the growers would be depending upon the market situation and the quality of the end produce and would vary from month to month. As per the notified formula for Assam, the net sale proceeds need to be shared in the ratio of 65: 35 between the growers and the factories when the price fetched by the individual factory remains either at par or lower than the state average. When the price fetched by the individual factory exceeds the state average, the differential is to be shared in the ratio of 50:50. This scientific formula is more helpful for the growers in realizing remunerative price for the green leaf in lieu of fixed base price.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Dr. D. Purandeswari in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
Un-remunerative Coffee prices, severe drought conditions, heavy rainfall and white stem borer infestation affected the Coffee sector during the early part of last decade which led to decrease in production, productivity and inability of Coffee growers to service their debts and make proper investments in their farms in the first half of the decade. However, due to favourable weather conditions and remunerative prices in the recent years and implementation of various development schemes by the Coffee Board, the Coffee production has increased from 2.71 lakh MT in 2003-04 to 3.14 lakh MT in 2011-12.
With a view to providing relief to Coffee growers during the distress period, relief measures have been extended by the Govt. of India from time to time, viz., Special Coffee Term Loan (SCTL) in April, 2002 and the Special Relief Package in June, 2005. Further, in order to help the coffee growers to deal with the accumulated debt burden of coffee crisis period of 2000-01 to 2005-06, the Coffee Debt Relief Package-2010 was sanctioned for the debt ridden small coffee growers and Rs. 241.00 crore was released to the Coffee Board for settling the claims. The waiver benefit was restricted to the small coffee growers (upto 10 hec.) and the medium and large growers were extended the benefit of rescheduling their loan. The entire amount had been utilized for the purpose. As additional claims from the banks were still pending, on the request made by the Coffee Board, additional fund of Rs. 58.00 Crores was released to the Coffee Board under CDRP-2010 for settling the pending/supplementary claims. About Rs. 52.20 crores of this amount has also been utilized. So far, 1,35,260 coffee growers have already benefited and the scheme has helped the growers to reduce their loan liability and reschedule their balance outstanding loans.
Representations were made by some Members of Parliament, the Karnataka Growers’ Federation etc. requesting for waiver of interest on the loans taken by the medium and large coffee growers. The matter was examined in consultation with the Ministry of Finance. However, the request was not found feasible on the ground that such a waiver would have financial implications for banks and result in similar kind of demands from other sectors
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