How safe is tea you sip; CAG lobs serious questions
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, August 21: The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the state of the affairs of tea marketing and productions in the country reveal serious regulatory lapses. The report, tabled in parliament recently, suggests that the Tea Board is inadequate to the task to enforce the mandatory checks on productions and marketing of tea in the country.
The report also reveals a disturbing trend that even the tea waste may be passed on to consumers. “As per Tea (Waste) Control Order 1959, all tea factories should declare a minimum of two per cent of their production as tea waste. However, 72 per cent to 78 per cent tea manufacturing units generated less than two per cent tea waste during the years 2018-19 to 2020-21. Further, there were instances where factories had not generated any tea waste,” the CAG noted in the report.
The CAG finding that the tea growers are not reporting any waste suggest that everything is being sold in the market which may also bring quality control in question. The regulatory supervision of the Tea Board appears to be abysmal as revealed by the CAG in its report.
“…Tea Act, 1953 authorised Tea Board to inspect the quality of tea, factories were not adequately inspected during 2016-17 to 2020-21. The shortfall of inspection ranged between 78.62 per cent and 91.95 per cent which showed poor monitoring on part of Tea Board,” added the CAG in its findings.
Incidentally, Tea Board mandates collection of tea samples from the manufacturing units for testing in authorised laboratories as the samples are to be tested, for quality assurance, once in six months, in line with Clause 12 of the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations, 2011. “However, Audit observed that there was a shortfall in sample collection ranging between 84 per cent and 97 per cent during the audit period indicating poor monitoring,” noted the CAG in its findings.
Further, the top auditor underlined the lack of enforcing regulation on small tea growers in the country. “Small tea growers contributed towards more than 50 per cent of total tea production in 2020- 21. But 38 per cent of small tea growers were not registered as of March 2021 and were out of the ambit of Tea Board’s regulatory activities and developmental assistance,” said the CAG, adding that “119 out of 1,573 big tea growers were not registered as of March 2021”.
The CAG also pointed out dismal record of regulatory checks, as it stated that “in 200 cases test-checked, Audit observed that soil testing reports, confirming the suitability of the land for tea plantation had not been furnished and also, no inspection had been carried out by the officials of Tea Board for verifying the details submitted by small tea growers in the said cases”.
Tea Marketing Control (Amendment) Order, 2015 provides for constitution of Green Leaf Price Monitoring Committee in each tea growing district, which is mandated to monitor the average green leaf price payable to small tea growers, while the order stipulates requirement of holding one meeting in every month. “However, in 10 out of 18 tea growing districts of Assam, not a single meeting was held during 2016-17 to 2020-21 and in the remaining eight districts, the number of meetings held in a year were less than four. Similarly, in five tea growing districts of West Bengal, the number of meetings held was less than two in a year during the period 2016-17 to 2020-21,” noted the CAG in its report.
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