Bangladesh, Nov. 2 -- The government has drawn up a series of measures to tackle the challenges facing the country's tea industry and boost production and investment. One of them is examining whether tea can be declared an agricultural product so that tea gardens can borrow at 4 per cent interest instead of the current 13.75 per cent.

Advertisement The initiatives also include reducing value-added tax (VAT) on tea from fiscal year 2027-28, rescheduling existing classified loans and providing fresh credit.

The government has also decided to facilitate commercial solar power plants on unused tea garden land and to set a floor price for tea in line with production costs.

The decisions were taken at a meeting on the development of the tea...