Darjeeling Tea Association proposes amendments to the Tea Act

The Darjeeling Tea Association has proposed amendments to the Tea Act, to penalise violators of the newly instituted law, Geographic Indicator of Good Registration and Protection Act 1999, at the production end.

Darjeeling tea was the first product to be notified last year under the law, which is also known as the GI (Georaphical Indicator). It meant that only tea grown in the geographical area of Darjeeling could call itself Darjeeling tea. It was primarily aimed at stopping nearly 30 million kg of non-Darjeeling tea being sold from the “Darjeeling platform” in the world market.

While the GI has begun to have a positive impact on the world market, it has not been entirely effective in stopping the few unscrupulous tea gardens in the region from mixing their tea with green leaves procured from Nepal and Terai. Although few gardens indulge in this nefarious practice, it has become important to stop them because it undermines the GI, whose final goal is to guarantee quality to buyers.

Tea officials said the Darjeeling Tea Association has already given a proposal to the Tea Board which in turn has agreed to draft the amendments to the Tea Act. “The GI is not stringent enough on the production side, and therefore it is seen that the practice of mixing outside tea has not been given up by the offenders. It has become imperative to amend the Tea Act by which the violators can be seriously penalized,” an official said.

It may be pointed out that when the Darjeeling Tea Association last year announced the notification of Darjeeling tea under GI, they had declared that those producers guilty of mixing tea can be imprisoned for a period of up to three years along with a fine of up to Rs 25 lakh. Importantly, the defaulting garden would also be “denotified,” ceasing to exist as a producer of Darjeeling tea.

Apparently, the penal measures have been difficult to implement as notification of gardens fall under the purview of the Tea Act.

Source> The Stateman