The Hindu : Business : Guwahati tea auction goes electronic

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 22, 2004

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Business

Guwahati tea auction goes electronic

By Sushanta Talukdar

GUWAHATI, JUNE 21. The Union Minister of state for Commerce and Industry, E. V. K. S. Elangovan, today inaugurated the electronic tea auction system at the Guwahati Tea Acution Centre here.

This is the second tea auction centre after Coimbatore to have electronic bidding system.

The Union Minister said that electronic auction system would ensure greater transparency in the bidding system and would be an effective tool in the hands of all stakeholders including the industry, trade, Tea Board and the government.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman of the Tea Board, N. K. Das, said the electronic bidding system was set up under the medium term tea export strategy 2002-07 in line with the recommendation contained in the A. F. Ferguson study.

Jayanta Madhab, Economic Adviser to the Assam Chief Minister, called upon the producers to take advantage of the electronic bidding system which he said would bring more transparency in the sale of tea. He pointed out that as much as 38 per cent of tea produced in Assam did not go to the auctions and hence the auction prices do not reflect the prices of 50-60 per cent of the output.

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