Day-long Orientation programme for small tea growers held at Tea Board, NE Zonal office, Guwahati

GUWAHATI: Tea Board, NE Zonal office, Guwahati on Friday organized a day-long orientation programme for small tea growers on the export of tea. Several eminent resource persons were invited to give a presentation on the subject. More than 70 small tea growers from different parts of North East were present, stated a press release.

Sunita Rai, AGM, APEDA Guwahati elaborated on how to start exports. During her presentation, she guided the participants to first apply online for Import Export Code (IEC) in the DGFT portal. Second is to apply to Tea Board for RCMC (Registration cum Membership Certificate), third step is to collect ADC (Authorised Distributor Code) from Bank which has to be later registered with customs. After completion of these formalities, one has to apply for additional documents depending on the requirements of importing countries.

PS Choudhury of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) mentioned that in 2018-19, about 17.8 million kg worth Rs. 408 crores of tea were exported from ICD, Amingaon. He mentioned that there was no cess on export of tea. He elaborated on different compliances for export of tea.

AK Brahma of the office of Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Guwahati explained how to apply online for Import Export Code (IEC). Alok Bora, manager of Exim Bank, Guwahati explained different bank formalities required for exports.

Autri Bhattacharjee, a tea exporter from this region elaborated on potential countries where tea can be exported. He also pointed out infrastructure bottlenecks for exporting teas from Guwahati. Many small tea growers Madhurjya Gogoi, Bhugeswari Chengmai, Bijit Basumatary etc shared their experience in export of tea. It needs to mention here that India exported 256 million kgs in 2018 and out of which 155 milllion kgs were exported from North India and 101 million Kgs from South India.

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