The Indian Tea Association (ITA) has sought exemption from the Centre’s budgetary proposal of 2% tax deducted at source for cash withdrawals of more than ₹1 crore annually.
The association said that banking infrastructure in areas around tea estates and villages where workers lived, was not adequate.
The total annual wage payout for the 9 lakh industry workers is about ₹8,000 crore in Assam and North Bengal. During demonetisation, servicing them proved to be a problem as neither the banks were adequately staffed to handle payment volumes, nor were proper ATM services available, it said.“Despite the industry’s efforts, payment through bank transfer has not been possible in the tea estates,” the ITA said in the letter.
Pointing out that the industry was going through a crisis, it said liquidity would be severely compromised if 2% TDS was imposed on the industry, and noted that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s proposal had scope for exempting industries whose business models had an inherent cash withdrawal component.
The Tea Association of India, whose members had gardens in West Bengal’s Dooars and Terai region, also echoed the ITA’s views saying that the proposal posed concern for the industry.
