Tea Board to Streamline Exports

The Tea Board of India will soon be restructuring its exporting policies, according to The Hindu. With a less stringent policy, it will be possible to obtain an exporting license within 48 hours as opposed to the current timeframe of licensing which cTea Board of India an take months. Export licenses are issued by the Tea Distribution and Export Control Order, and a tea-exporter must own a valid license from the Tea Board. Licenses come in two categories — temporary and permanent. Temporary exporter licenses are only valid for three years, while permanent licenses last forever. “The idea is to improve and streamline the system, cutting the number of documents that an exporter needs to submit for getting a license to export,” Tea Board Chairman M. G. V. K. Bhanu told The Hindu. In accordance with these new rules, which will take effect immediately, an exporter only needs to submit one major document, the Import-Export Certificate, from the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade, rather than the 10 documents that they were previously required to provide to Tea Board officials. In December of 2012, the Tea Board embarked on a major initiative to remove fraudulent exporters from the marketplace.  Because of this initiative, there are currently only 290 temporary tea exporters and 185 permanent exporters as compared to the 470 permanent exporters and 2,800 temporary exporters in 2012. Mainly competing with other major exporters such as China and Sri Lanka, India exports close to 210 million kg of tea annually. The first quarter of the 2013-2014 season has shown a growth in export volume with around 222 million kg set as a target to export. SOURCE: The Hindu