The Western India Tea Dealers Association (WITDA) has requested the Indian Government to increase tea imports from Sri Lanka and Kenya by a good 40 million.

With the rise in economy and increasing cost of living the duty on all imports to India has been elevated a 100%. After a research conducted by WITDA, they have come to a conclusion that more tea imports from the good old neighbor Sri Lanka should be ingested.

With this situation WITDA has made a request with collected facts to the Indian government to bring down the duty on the tea imports in order to provide for the ever increasing demand.

Currently they have proposed Sri Lanka and Kenya as the most suitable candidates to this endeavor. Hopefully with further continuation of discussions on this topic the Sri Lankan tea exporters will be able to establish a much more flourishing trade bond with India.

"Currently, there is 100% import duty on tea. While the consumption has been rising 4-5% annually, the production has increased only marginally," said Piyush Desai, president, WITD

According to Desai, the annual production of tea in India is 1,150 million kg of which 160-180 million kg is exported and rest goes into domestic consumption.

The per capita consumption of tea in Gujarat is 1.25kg per year. "Every year the tea is getting costlier by Rs 20- Rs 30 per kg and in next five years it is expected to get expensive by 50%- 70%," said Desai.