Silchar, Feb. 8: Union finance minister Jaswant Singh’s fresh sop for the tea sector will not help the beleaguered industry in Cachar, leading planters here felt.

Singh announced a fresh sop for the tea industry while replying to the debates on the interim budget in the Lok Sabha last week. The minister offered a section of tea gardens an interim tax relief of Rs 8 on every kg of tea produced by them for four months.

However, the planters pointed out that almost all tea estates in Cachar have nearly 300 hectares of land each under cultivation, which makes them ineligible for availing of the benefit as the new sop limits the benefit to only small tea estates having less than 10.12 hectares of cultivable land.

A source in the tea industry here pointed out that about five gardens of such size in Cachar would be able to get the subsidy. “It would have been better had all ailing tea estates in the state been brought under the ambit of the new concessions,” the source added.

Cachar tea has been fetching a steadily lower price in Guwahati auction centre. Last week, the average price for Cachar CTC was pegged at a dismal Rs 43.11, which reflected a downslide of Rs 3 a kg in comparison to the price last year.

Big gardens in Cachar registered the lowest-ever price of Rs 42.85 and Rs 36.28 a kg respectively in the auctions last week.