Tea Board India held a seminar at Kolkata’s Nilhat House on 5 October to make tea auctions more transparent and competitive. Officials said they want to use technology to help small growers. PK Bhattacharjee said, "Continued cooperation between Tea Board India and industry stakeholders" will help the entire tea sector.
A transparent and efficient auction system is important not only for buyers and sellers but also for providing reliable price benchmarks for green leaf supplied by small growers.
In order to make the country's tea auction system more transparent, efficient and competitive through technology-driven reforms, the Tea Board India (TBI) is stepping up efforts to widen buyer participation, improve price discovery and reduce transaction costs.
The initiative was discussed at a seminar on 'Reforms in the Implementation of Pan-India e-Auction', organised by Tea Board India under the Centre's 'Reform Utsav' initiative at the CTTA Auction Hall, Nilhat House, Kolkata, on 5 October.
The seminar brought together representatives of the tea industry to discuss ways to strengthen the auction mechanism.
PK Bhattacharjee, Secretary General of the Tea Association of India (TAI), stressed the importance of continued cooperation between Tea Board India and industry stakeholders to ensure that the proposed reforms benefit the entire tea sector, including small tea growers.
A transparent and efficient auction system is important not only for buyers and sellers but also for providing reliable price benchmarks for green leaf supplied by small growers.
The Pan-India e-Auction system, introduced in 2016, allowed buyers registered at one auction centre to participate in auctions at other centres through a common electronic platform. An integrated online post-auction settlement mechanism introduced in 2018 further improved financial transparency and helped ensure timely payments.
According to Bhattacharjee, reforms have yielded measurable results. The number of buyers participating across auction centres rose from 1,702 in 2015-16 to 2,417 in 2025-26, while the volume of tea sold through auctions increased from 518.08 million kg to 643.89 million kg during the same period.
A next-generation web-based auction platform is now being introduced to improve accessibility and reduce operating costs. The proposed user charge of 7.5 paise per kg, against the existing 12 paise, is expected to ease the financial burden on stakeholders. The platform has been rolled out in Kolkata, Coonoor and Dibrugarh, he added.
The seminar also reviewed phased recommendations of the Auction Reforms Committee, covering sampling norms, lot standardisation, ex-estate sales, shorter auction lead times, warehousing and an integrated transaction platform.
Tea Board India's initiative seeks to build a more unified and technology-driven auction system to strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the Indian tea industry, according to a senior official of the TBI.