Jan. 21: A delegation of brokers will meet Tea Board chairman N.K. Das when he visits the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) tomorrow to discuss measures to improve the electronic auction system.

Sources said the delegation would also request Das to start electronic auction of tea at Calcutta and Siliguri.

This will be beneficial to the GTAC as it will stop diversion of teas from the centre, the sources added. The GTAC is the third largest CTC auction centre in the world.

The delegation under the aegis of a joint brokers? committee will also present a memorandum to the Tea Board chairman on the various problems being faced by them in getting good prices for teas being sold through the electronic auctions.

?We would also apprise him of the technical problems being faced by us as there are still problems despite electronic auctions starting last year,? a leading tea broker said. He said said simply having electronic auctions at Guwahati would not serve any purpose as teas, which are not getting good prices, can be diverted to other centres such as Calcutta or Siliguri.

Sources said a breakthrough is unlikely as the prices are still not good enough to get support from the producers in offering more teas.

Officials in the GTAC said tomorrow?s meeting would try to understand the problems of the brokers and other segments of the industry and find out a solution which is acceptable to them.

?Electronic auctions will have to succeed at the GTAC and concerted efforts will be made to get it done,? a senior GTAC official said.

The Tea Board?s directive calling for offering 100 per cent teas through the electronic auctions in the GTAC has not gone down well with the industry.

The Tea Board has asked the GTAC to comply with this direction by March 31 to help electronic auctions take off which are now floundering. ?We all want to support electronic auctions but the real concern is the prices for which we all are raising our voices,? another broker said.

The GTAC had gone electronic in June last year.

Industry officials said the prices at the GTAC electronic auctions are at least Rs 5 to Rs 7 lower than the manual auctions and there is no tangible benefit in participating in the electronic auctions.Teas are offered for electronic auctions after the manual auctions and also are of secondary grade.

The Indian Tea Association (ITA) is already against the mandatory stipulation relating to routing of teas through the auction system and said the system has systematic faults and involves high transaction and time costs.

However, a Tea Board study done by A.F. Ferguson recently on ?Primary Marketing of Tea in India? had observed that the auction system is still perceived as being fundamentally sound.?