According to analysts, the removal of this commodity would effectively stand to reason that the government should now be less concerned on a monitoring system of the product as regards its marketing and distribution channels.

The decision to uncover tea from ECA was put forward by the department of consumer affairs on August 19, to which a notification is slated to be issued shortly. It was assured that the government was empowered to issue notifications for altering the lists of the commodities to be covered under the Act and modify orders relating to it.

The TMCO is an order under the Tea Act under the jurisdiction of the union commerce ministry which guides the entire process of distributing the tea. In this respect, auctions happen to be the mainstay behind the distribution of tea. For example, according to the TMCO, it is mandatory for all companies to put in 75 per cent of their teas into the auction houses.

According to an industry observer, the whole idea of tea being one among the list of essential commodities was that it was a price-sensitive item and drawing the analogy a bit further, the present situation does not quite justify the existence of a marketing control order as it is now a product transparent enough to be left on itself.

The imposition of the eight per cent excise duty on tea packs between 100 grams and 20 kgs is consistent with the removal of the commodity from the ECA. But this cannot be justified with the pressure of the government to indirectly ask the producers to introduce economy packs few months back, which effectively meant discharging the industry's obligations to the common man, said a top producer.

Such adhocism by the government justifying various policy changes has been to the detriment of the industry which has opened up a plethora of questions on the fate of the commodity in future, contends the industry.

The free imports of tea from the Saarc countries would jeopardise the Indian tea industry in a big way. A low import duty of 10 per cent will lead to a price advantage for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh teas over Indian teas.

The 10 per cent import duty on comparatively cheaper teas will in no way counterbalance the newly imposed eight per cent excise duty on packet teas over 100 grams which will translate into a disincentive for packet teas in the country as majority of imports could take place in packet form.

The industry has feels CTC and some amount of orthodox teas of the plainer varieties produced by Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, when imported, would directly affect the market of a large segment of the tea industry especially the Dooars, Terai, Cachhar and South India.

On the other hand, Sri Lankan and Nepal high-grown teas, if imported and blended, will dilute the quality of Darjeeling teas, thus narrowing the margins of the Darjeeling tea industry which is already operating under severe constraints and is striving to improve its price realisation.

The industry fears that incongruous policies of the government may act as a deterrent to production and export targets of 840 million kg and a foreign exchange of Rs 2400 crore respectively against exports in the current year. Tea production was 803 m kg and export revenue was to the tune of Rs 1970 crore in 1997.