`Tea auction.com limited', a company approved by the Tea Board, dealing in online trading, has shares of tea giants such as the Williamson Magor, Hanuman Tea Company and Dhansiri Tea.

Without parity with GTAC, the company would have to pay four per cent central sales tax thereby incurring a loss, Tea Operations senior manager, Ahmed Reza said here yesterday. The company has opened a website on Assam Tea, he said.

Mr Reza said in other states such as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the company had at par status with four auction centres, the same should be applicable in Assam.

He said that the union commerce ministry had abolished the Tea Marketing Control Order, which made it mandatory to sell 75 per cent of the production through auctions, which has resulted in an increase in tea being sold in the private market, of which the state government earned no revenue.

If the sales parity is introduced, the company can function as a support to the existing GTAC, which would result in increase in transaction and hence revenue for the government. Mr Reza claimed that out of the 462 million kg of tea produced in Assam, 210 million kg was sold in the private market but when the tea.com gets going, it would attract 74 million kg from the private market valued at about Rs. 535 crore. He said with sales tax on the sales of Rs 535 crore at O per cent, the government gains an additional sales tax revenue of Rs 10.70 crore in the first year alone. Moreover, the share of tea sold through teaauction.com was bound to increase, as internet and e-commerce became more easily available, he said.

In a memorandum to the Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta the company said, the auctioning through the internet would provide complete transparency and ensure equal distribution of tea to all corners of the country.

Mr Reza said the advantage of auctioning going online was that it would require only four weeks for the money to reach the production centre, while earlier through the auction centre it was taking a minium of 10 weeks.

"We would appeal to the company to consider another teaauction centre in Assam, which would increase the ambit of the auction system of Assam teas thereby providing the government with much needed deprived revenue in the form of sales tax", the memorandum said.

Mr Reza claimed that the new internet based online system of auctioning has been appreciated by the buyers and sellers, and elevated the state of Assam to the IT map of the country.

(PTI)