Tea trading hive off to speed up STC sale

Decks have been cleared for the privatisation of State Trading Corporation (STC), as work on liquidation of its loss-making subsidiary Tea Trading Corporation of India (TTCI) starts shortly.

The government had earlier decided to hive off TTCI from STC before the privatisation of the latter. The government is in the process of selling 65 per cent of its equity in favour of a strategic partner. TTCI’s activities include manufacturing, domestic marketing, export, packaging and storage of tea and other allied activities. Though the liquidation of TTCI has been challenged, officials of the Ministry of Disinvestment were confident that there is no alternative to closure. TTCI has been in in bad shape for quite some time, and incurred a loss of Rs 3.8 crore in 1999-2000. The condition of the company has been so bad that it did not submit accounts to the department of public enterprises for 2000-01. No trading activity has taken place in the last two years and its five tea estates are non-functional.

TTCI owns tea estates and godowns. Headquartered in Kolkata, all its tea estates are located in Darjeeling and Jalpaigudi districts of West Bengal, except one in Assam.