Special fund for plantations just a click away

KOLKATA: After successfully launching a special purpose fund for tea plantation, the Union commerce ministry has come up with a proposal to float such funds for coffee, pepper and rubber.

The ministry aims to provide Rs 1,500 crore for these three important plantation sectors. The objective of the special purpose fund is to rejuvenate the age-old plantations to increase productivity.

Addressing newspersons on Tuesday, Jairam Ramesh, Union minister of state for commerce said: “The respective commodity boards are working on the structure of the fund. The proposal will be placed before the Cabinet shortly. We expect to get a clearance within next two months.”

The ministry has proposed a Rs 600 crore fund for replanting and rejuvenating 90,000 hectares of coffee plantation. Coffee, which has a large international market, earns export revenues for the country. For pepper and rubber, the ministry has proposed a Rs 400 crore and Rs 500 crore funds respectively.

Commenting on special purpose tea fund (SPTF), Mr Ramesh said, “The chairman of Nabard has assured me that first tranche of SPTF will be disbursed on November 1, ‘06. However, any producer who has defaulted in paying provident fund and other statutory dues will not be eligible to get SPTF. The SPTF will be headed by a full-fledged chief executive officer to monitor its proper utilisation.”

Added Basudeb Banerjee, chairman, Tea Board, “There are certain issues regarding SPTF which are now being sorted out with the department of banking and expenditure of the finance ministry. We expect the negotiation to come to an end by July.”