Repeal of archaic tea, coffee, spices, rubber Acts aimed at helping small farmers: Goyal

The proposal to repeal archaic laws on tea, coffee, spices, and rubber and introduce new legislation is aimed at promoting ease of doing business and helping small farmers, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said.

The commerce ministry has conducted stakeholder consultations on the drafts of the Spices (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022; Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022; Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022; Tea (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022 to address their concerns.

The Department of Commerce has said it is proposing the repeal of the Tea Act, 1953; Spices Board Act, 1986; Rubber Act 1947; and Coffee Act 1942.

''These are very old laws and the idea is only to simplify them, make it easier to do business, ensure that the small people in the different areas like coffee growing, and tea-growing do not have to suffer from high levels of compliance burden,'' Goyal told PTI.

He was replying to a question about the objective behind introducing new legislation.

When asked if there is any opposition to the move, he said there is consensus among stakeholders concerned.

''Our stakeholder consultations have gone very well and we have been able to satisfy the various stakeholders involved,'' he added.

When asked if these bills can be introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament, Goyal said they have not yet taken a final call on that.

According to the draft bills, posted on the website of the commerce ministry, the new legislations are proposed to reflect the present realities and objectives.

As per the draft, the principal reason for proposing the repeal of the Tea Act is that there is a paradigm shift in the recent decade concerning the way tea is grown, marketed, and consumed and this necessitates amendment of the existing Act.

Also, there is a need to enable the Spices Board to provide focused attention across the entire supply chain of spices.

Explaining the rationale behind the proposal to repeal the Rubber Act, the draft bill says that in recent years, there have been widespread changes in the industrial and economic scenario, especially in the development of rubber and allied sectors.

The draft Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022, underlines that the substantive portion of the existing Act dealing with the pooling and marketing of coffee has become redundant/inoperative.