Tripura Tea industry facing crisis

Out of 57 registered tea gardens, 10 have been closed down in the past decade due to militancy and more are on the verge of closure.
North East News Agency

TEA is one of the highest revenue earners for the North-East. But insurgency and reluctance on the part of the owners to invest in tea estates in Tripura in the last few years has brought the industry to a position of imminent collapse with tea prices plummeting at auctions. The imposition of the excise duty at Rs 2 per kg on processed tea has also added to the woes of this  ailing sector. Out of 57 registered tea gardens in Tripura,10 have been closed down in the past decade because of militancy and many more are on the verge of  closure. “Seeing the twin threats of militancy and decreasing demand in the market for tea produced in Tripura, it seems the future of this industry is bleak with the slump in prices at weekly auctions,’’ according to an official of the Tripura Tea Development Corporation(TTDC). The TTDC was set up in 1980 for development of tea industry in the state and later also made as a nodal agency by the state government for the growth of small planters in Tripura. Now, the plantation owners are either winding up their businesses or moving out to avoid being targetted by the tribal insurgent groups — National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF). Both the outfits have long been extorting money from the tea gardens of the border State.

Since 1994, at least 13 planters have been killed and more than 30 excecutives kidnapped for ransom throughout the state. So far an estimated Rs 30 million was coughed up to arrange the release of the abducted excecutives, as per industry sources. The situation   has turned worse for the tea gardens located along the Indo-Bangla border. ‘’The groups like the NLFT and ATTF, which have bases in Bangladesh, easily target the     tea estates situated along the Tripura border for extortion,’’ according to  a planter.

However, as per industry observers despite the problem of insurgency,the economic condition could have been much better without the burden of excise duty on the processed tea. Considering the state’s remote location, excise duty on processed tea was abolished in 1993. Previously the excise duty on processed tea was 50 paise per kg only. The officials of the Tripura chapter of the Tea Association of India (TAI)believe that in this state, where the tax on agriculture is highest in the country, the imposition of excise duty has further crippled the industry. At present more than 57 small and marginal tea gardens in Tripura employing more than 13,000 workers have been reeling under severe financial crisis following loss of production during the last four years due to insurgency and inadequate funds. Unofficial sources pegged the loss at more than Rs 60 crore. The industry had not received any major financial  help from the Centre except Rs 6 crore to the state government to recover the loss during 1999-2000 due to drought. According to sources, nearly 4,500 people, who were once employed in the industry, are now jobless. The tea industry, the only organised industry in Tripura, occupies an important place in its economy. Almost the lion’s share of the state’s income in the industrial sector comes from the tea industry. Tea cultivation in the state was started way back in 1919 during Maharaja Birendrakishore Manikya regime , who granted a lease of 9,700 hectares of land for tea cultivation,but by 1939, the area was reduced to about 4,480 hectares. Since then another one thousand hectares were added.

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