Tax on tea mooted
The Assam PCC on Tuesday suggested imposition of tax at the production base on all green leaves brought to tea factories to enable the state government to raise cumulative revenue of Rs 500 crore from tea industry annually, thereby improving the state's current financial situation. A PCC spokesman Pradyut Bordoloi, MLA, told reporters in Guwahati that imposition of even Re 1 per kg at the entry point of green leaves into factories would yield sufficient revenue with Assam producing over 460 million kg finished tea yearly. Supporting the government's move to mobilise additional resources by amending the tax collection mechanism on the tea industry, Bordoloi said the existing system of transferring 65 per cent of finished tea as stock transfer and export commitment did not yield revenue. Suggesting that land revenue on tea cultivable land could also be increased, he urged the government to regularise all its land on which most of the 23,000 small tea growers were cultivating tea for generating an additionalincome of Rs 80 crore annually to the exchequer.

Assam to step up rice output
Assam would have a surplus rice production of 40,000 metric tonnes by December next year through advanced farming methods and high yielding variety crops, according to the agriculture minister Chandra Mohan Patowary. "The state would be not only be self-sufficient but also have a surplus of 40,000 metric tonnes by December 2000", Patowary told a group of visiting newsmen at the Regional Rice Research Centre in Gerua on Monday. He said at present the stat's requirement of rice was 37 lakh metric tonnes while there was production of only 34 lakh metric tonnes.The rice centre, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has been conducting experiments of various grades of rice brought from other states of high-yielding variety which has shown positive results, the minister said.

Palm oil prices in Malaysia dip
News that China would maintain its imports of palm oil from Malaysia this year and the lack of a decision over additional Chinese quotas pulled down palm oil prices in Malaysia on Tuesday, traders said. "It is quite disappointing. The market was quite positive that China will say something on the import quotas but it did not, so people came out to sell actively in the afternoon," one said. China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that China would maintain its palm oil imports from Malaysia in 1999 at last year's level. China imported about one million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in 1998. Asked about palm oil import quota for next year, the spokesman said, "I think the two sides can have discussions, taking into consideration the needs and possibilities."

Kuwait won't raise oil output
Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Saud al-Sabah said on Tuesday his country would not hike its oil output to fill in supply gaps left by Iraq and Iran. Asked by Reuters if Kuwait was prepared to fill in any shortfall in crude supplies, Sheikh Saud said: "No."