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The government has turned down the commerce ministry's plea to provide electricity for the tea industry at subsidised prices.
"There is no scope for supplying electricity for tea production, as enjoyed by the agriculture crop sector," the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources informed the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) in a letter.
The commerce ministry had recently submitted a proposal to the division in line with a request made by the Bangladesh Tea Association (BTA), the representative organisation of the country's tea estate owners.
Currently, financial assistance is provided as subsidies from the revenue budget against the government's tariff deficit loss due to purchasing electricity from India at high prices and selling it to bulk consumers at low prices, including independent power producers (IPPs) and rental-based power generation companies.
The amount of the subsidy has been significantly reduced in the current fiscal year compared to FY25, the Power Division letter said.
It claimed the subsidy pressure would increase again if electricity is provided at subsidised prices for tea production.
In addition, tea is recognised as a commercial industry. In that context, there is no scope for providing electricity at subsidised rates for tea production like other agricultural crops, according to the letter.
In 2024, the country produced some 93 million kilograms of tea, down from around 103 million kg in the previous year. The 166 tea estates in the country cover almost 280,000 acres of land.
Bangladesh is listed as the ninth largest tea producer, accounting for around 2 per cent of the world's tea production, according to the BTA.
The association provides direct employment to over 0.1 million people in the tea estates.
The tea industry provides livelihoods for 0.5 million people directly and another 0.5 million indirectly.
Those who are indirectly involved depend on the industry through tea trade, brokerage, warehousing, and other ancillary service industries.
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