The Siliguri Tea Auction centre at Mallaguri. Picture by Avijit Sarkar

Siliguri, Sept. 3: The impasse created by the hike of Khamali and Rassa Khichai by the labourers at tea warehouses, which resulted in the cancellation of Siliguri Tea Auction no. 34 last week, has ended.

At a joint meeting with the deputy labour commissioner yesterday, all the parties settled scores and fixed the new Khamali rate at Re 1 per package and Rassa Khichai at Rs 180 per truck. Both charges are paid to the labourers at the time of lifting the post-auction sale tea from the warehouses.

“The labourers had hiked their charges, Khamali to Rs 1.20 from 90 paise per package and Rassa Khichai to Rs 200 from Rs 165 per truck, since August 1 without any prior notice,” said Siliguri Tea Auction Committee secretary T.B. Subba.

“Due to this, the transporters had stopped lifting the post-auction tea of Sale No 34, which had resulted in a major portion of the sold tea lying undelivered in the warehouses. The stalemate had also resulted in the cancellation of last week’s auction, as a result of which some 20 lakh packages worth Rs 10 crore remained unsold,” he added.

“However, with the finalisation of the new rates, work of lifting the load has begun from today and normality has been restored,” Subba pointed out.

While the cancellation tea auction will cause a loss of revenue, through sales tax, to the government, the coming pujas is expected to be damp for the tea garden employees. “The tea producers are facing difficulty in paying wages to their employees and it may also be difficult to pay them puja bonus,” Subba said. “Chances are that the prices at the next Tea Auction No 36 might also get affected,” he added.

The last time when tea auction was cancelled was in August 2000, which was also due to the same reason.

Khamali is revised every two years. While Khamali is charged for loading the packages to the trucks, Rassi Khichai is charged for covering the goods with tarpaulin and tying them up to the trucks.

“At our meeting with the subdivisional officer in 2000, it was decided that the labourers will be allowed to increase the charges without consultation with the warehouses concerned and governing bodies,” Subba said.

“While initially, we paid them the increased rates, we stopped lifting goods in trucks and took to rickshaw vans instead,” said Shankarlal Agarwal, secretary, Siliguri Road Transport Association.