Calcutta, Feb. 23 :    Calcutta, Feb. 23:  The city-based United Bank of India (UBI) has worked out a funding scheme for the tea industry, which is currently passing through a crisis due to low price realisation as well as a fall in exports. UBI, the city's oldest bank, is a major financier for the tea industry in the eastern region. Speaking to The Telegraph, UBI chairman and managing director Madhukar said, 'The tea industry had made several representations to us regarding their present situation. They said they needed funds to run operations smoothly, but at the same time wanted favourable terms of repayment. Since we have a long-standing relationship with the tea industry, we decided to give them a chance.' 'We decided to give them a working capital term loan. The loan is being offered at market rate (13-14 per cent at present). We have also worked out a flexible repayment programme for the industry based on cash flow,' he said. Madhukar explained that in good times, most tea firms failed to avail of working capital loans. Rather, they took loans from the bank for buying additional land to expand their cultivation. 'They should have taken working capital from us at that time. Since they failed to avail of that, we decided to provide them with working capital term loan. The move will help correct the structural imbalances in the tea industry,' he said. The bank has taken such a decision because most tea accounts are standard accounts. 'The NPA (non-performing asset) level is not high in the tea industry. Very few of them are sub-standard assets. Security-wise, the tea industry is very strong,' he said. Tea industry officials are however, happy with the developments. 'We were apprehensive that banks will not provide us with working capital in the next season since returns were not satisfactory this season. But this at least has come as a breather,' the industry officials said. The current fiscal has been a bad one for the tea industry, with tea prices at auctions falling by Rs 25-30 per kg from that in the previous season. Production had been good at 850 million kgs, but an oversupply in the market depressed the prices of tea. Moreover, while price realisations have come down drastically, the cost of production has substantially gone up. In the retail segment too, the realisation has not been satisfactory, with companies resorting to freebies to sell their teas. Tea exports have also seen a sharp decline compared with the previous year.