Representatives of the United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI) met Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, here this afternoon and sought his intervention for revising upwards the subsidy to be given under the proposed Special Purpose Tea Fund (SPTF) so as to help the growers in undertaking replantation and rejuvenation activities. The Minister assured UPASI of all help from the government in reviving the fortunes of the Indian tea industry.
The SPTF, which is under consideration of the government, envisages replantation and rejuvenation programme at a cost of Rs.4761 crore spread over 15 years to revive the fortunes of tea industry both in terms of increase in yield as well as improvement in quality, thereby helping the industry to recapture its competitive edge in the global market.
“Given the magnitude of the cost involved and also the resultant crop loss to the estate in the initial phases of the programme, it may not be worthwhile if there is no adequate incentive to the growers by way of financial support. Given the above facts, we request you to kindly consider revising the subsidy to 40% under the SPTF as originally envisaged so that the tea plantations could benefit from the programme”, UPASI said in a representation handed over to Shri Kamal Nath.
In a separate meeting with Shri Kamal Nath today, the Coffee Exporters Association urged the Minister to extend the Vishesh Krishi Upaj Yojana scheme to the coffee industry so as to help the coffee industry overcome the problems it is currently facing. Noting that the Foreign Trade Policy for the year 2004-05 had announced the Krishi Vishesh Upaj Yojana to benefit the farmers, the association said that the scheme was unfortunately restricted only to a few products and not coffee. Therefore, they have suggested that the scheme may be applicable to coffee so as to provide some financial assistance to a large number of farmers to meet a part of their cost and stabilize their income and livelihood, as well as to arrest the decline in the production of coffee and increase coffee exports from India.
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SB/NR/MRS
(Release ID :21043)