KARACHI: Tea packers and loose tea traders have increased the prices by Rs20-100 per kg following a rise in black tea prices in the international market coupled with devaluation of the country’s currency.

Giving an example, retailers said the price of 950 gram pack of a leading tea packer now costs Rs830 as compared to Rs750 while the prices of 475 gram and 190 gram packs have been raised to Rs430 and Rs180 from Rs400 and Rs160 respectively.

Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) chairman Khalid Puri said the loose tea price has risen by Rs20-25 per kg followed by increase of Rs80-100 per kg by the packers.

Giving reason of price hike, he said tea prices in the world market rose to $3.75 per kg from $3.25 per kg in the last two to three months coupled with slight jump in imported cost due to losing strength of the rupee against the dollar. He said for the last eight to 10 days the world prices of black tea have been on the decline.

“Packers of black tea should reduce the prices in view of fall in the tea price in the world market,” he added.

According to the figures of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, tea import bill in July-Jan 2017-2018 rose by 11 per cent in value despite 3.5 per cent drop in quantity.

Import stood at $340 million (115,372 tonnes) versus $305mn (119,314 tonnes) in same period 2016-2017.

Despite slight drop in quantity, the landed price in July-Jan 2017-2018 was $2,946 per tonne as compared to $2,556 per tonne in same period last fiscal year.

Pakistan spent $524 million to import 197,158 tonnes of tea in 2016-2017 as compared to 173,785 tonnes costing $513mn in 2015-2016.

Mr Puri said country’s tea consumption stands at 230,000-240,000 tonnes per annum in which the share of tea arriving via smuggling and informal channels stands at 25 per cent while the rest of demand is met through legal imports.

Total taxes and duties on the import of black tea include 10 per cent customs duty, 17pc GST, three per cent value added tax and six per cent income tax making cumulative incident of taxes and duties to 36pc which encourages arrival of tea through illegal routes.

“The PTA has urged the government in its pre-budget 2018-2019 proposal to slash the customs duty on import of tea to five per cent from 10pc which will bring down price of tea and discourage smuggling,” the chairman added.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2018