Agartala, Feb 19: Tripura’s first tea auction centre at Gurkhabasti is expected to become operational by April, marking a significant development for the state’s tea industry and revenue framework.
Chief Minister Manik Saha had laid the foundation stone of the facility in March 2024 in West Tripura district. Once functional, Tripura will join the list of seven states across the country that host tea auction centres.
Tripura Tea Development Corporation chairman Samir Ranjan Ghosh said the corporation had set a target to operationalise the centre by April. He added that, in response to concerns raised by buyers over transportation costs, the corporation had decided to provide a subsidy of Rs 4 per kilogram from its own funds to ensure commercial viability.
At present, tea growers in Tripura send their produce to auction centres in Guwahati and Kolkata, a process that has been both time-consuming and costly due to high transport expenses. Ghosh said the establishment of a local auction centre would eliminate the need to send tea outside the state and help buyers and sellers secure better price realisation, as Tripura’s tea had not received priority at centres beyond the state.
He further stated that the state had been losing crores in State GST as it was still treated as a tea-producing state. The new auction centre would shift its classification to a tea-consuming state, enabling it to receive State GST on transactions conducted within Tripura.
Tripura currently has 54 operational tea estates and produces around 90 lakh kilograms of made tea annually. More than 30,000 people are directly dependent on the sector, highlighting the economic significance of the proposed facility.
