GUWAHATI — The Tea Board of India discontinued the Jorhat Tea Auction Centre (JTAC) from April 1, 2026, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from tea growers and industry stakeholders across Assam for being taken without adequate consultation.
The closure is being seen as a significant blow to the state's tea sector. Last year alone, growers sold approximately four million kg of tea through the Jorhat centre — making it the second largest auction platform in Assam after the one in Guwahati.
The numbers tell a troubling story for Assam.
Assam produces more than 50 per cent of India's total tea output, yet it now has just one functioning auction centre. By contrast, South Indian states — which produce 17 per cent of the national total — have three auction centres. West Bengal, accounting for 30 per cent of production, also has three.
The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre (GTAC) was established in 1970, after considerable resistance from a Calcutta-based lobby that was eventually overcome through the determined efforts of then Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha and Chief Secretary Dharmana Das. The Jorhat centre, India's first web-based tea auction platform, was established in 2020 by Mjunction Service Ltd — a 50:50 joint venture between SAIL and Tata Steel, and India's largest B2B e-commerce company — and was shut down after just five years of operation.
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Location is a key part of the argument being made by those opposing the closure.
Most of Assam's tea gardens are concentrated in upper Assam — making the Jorhat centre geographically far more accessible for a large proportion of the state's growers than the Guwahati centre. This mirrors the logic applied in both South India and West Bengal, where auction centres are positioned close to producing areas.
In a notification dated March 26, 2026, the Tea Board said it was in the process of establishing a new web-based, PAN India tea auction platform on a Build-Own-Operate model, and that continuing a "separate auction model at Jorhat" was "no longer considered feasible" in that context.
Stakeholders in Assam have not accepted this explanation. The closure was announced while the model code of conduct for the Assam Legislative Assembly election was in force — a timing that has drawn additional scrutiny.
Adding to the questions being raised: two Jorhat MPs — Gaurav Gogoi and Kamakhya Prasad Tasha — are members of the Tea Board of India. The centre was shut despite their presence on the Board.
For Assam's tea community, the arithmetic is difficult to ignore — the state that grows the most tea in the country now has the fewest auction centres to sell it through.
Stakeholders are calling for the decision to be reconsidered, arguing that any rationalisation of auction infrastructure should account for production volumes and geographic realities, not just administrative convenience.