Spices Board on Monday said it plans to introduce an online settlement mechanism that would help all stakeholders by ensuring timely payment to cardamom growers. The new mechanism would further streamline the e-auction of cardamom and is intended to provide all information about transactions online or through a mobile app, board sources said. The proposed model, which has been built in line with the existing auction system with minimal changes to fund flow procedures, will be operated via Spices Board settlement account through the identified bank instead of present settlement by individual auctioneer’s account.
This will enable the Board to monitor the flow of transaction or payment made by buyers (dealers) as also their outstanding payments, payments made to sellers (growers) and their outstanding payments, and commission charges paid to the auctioneer, sources said.
Spices Board chairman A Jayathilak said the proposed model has the potential to make e-auction of cardamom more efficient by introducing greater transparency, ensuring timely payments and putting in place a monitoring system. “The Board is seeking the views of the sellers, dealers (buyers) and auctioneers on the proposed settlement mechanism for the cardamom e-auction,” he added.
