Connoisseur’s choice

Calcutta, May 8: Trading became normal at the Calcutta tea auction today after the Tea Auction Buyers Association of Calcutta (Tabac) decided to call off its non-participation stance. Tabac will also submit suggestions on the brokerage fee hike within a month.

Tabac and the Calcutta Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA) met the Tea Board chairman today.

“The associations have been asked to submit their suggestions on the fee hike backed with adequate statistics. Meanwhile, the auctions will continue uninterrupted as they have assured complete co-operation,” said Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board.

The associations feel that for high-priced tea like the Darjeeling, the brokerage fee should be constant beyond a certain value.

Such value capping might be beneficial for both the parties, industry experts said.

The hiked brokerage fee in Calcutta is 0.3 per cent of the value of the tea sold, 0.22 per cent of that sold in Guwahati and 0.2 per cent of that sold in Siliguri.

The fee in Calcutta and Guwahati was 5 paise per kg and in Siliguri 3.3 paise per kg respectively since 1982.

“The chairman was happy to note that we didn’t prevent any buyer from participating in the auctions,” said Gopal Poddar, president of Tabac.

Poddar said Tabac would convene a meeting of buyers next week or so and it would take a month to work out a proposal backed by industry figures.

The non-participation stance was withdrawn in the morning after which the auctions in the city witnessed good to normal sales.

CTC prices were satisfactory, especially for the Dooars and Assam.

Demand was good for the Darjeeling as well with satisfactory prices.

The orthodox variety sold well with participation from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and inquiries from West Asia as well.