In a letter to union commerce secretary, PP Prabhu, Upasi tea committee chairman, MH Ashraff said Upasi was `shocked' to learn that the director general of foreign trade had included tea, coffee, natural rubber and cardamom in this list.

Of particular concern to south India was tea, as it was produced in sizeable quantities by two of the Saarc countries- Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, he said.

Allowing tea imports from Sri Lanka without any quantity restrictions or licensing formalities would result in teas from that country being dumped in India, some of which could be re-exported, greatly affecting Indian exports, he said.

Stating that imports from Bangladesh also posed a threat to Indian tea, he said unbridled and uncontrolled imports could eventually lead to oversupply, affecting prices.

Planters felt the move would destablilise the entire tea market scenario in India, at a time when the nation's overall exports were declining and tea industry and trade were making all-out efforts to augment exports, he said.

The centre's move was not in the long-term interests of the Indian tea industry and would also affect production plans, he added.

Sri Lanka, with an annual tea production of 2,80,000 tonnes, had always been a competitor to south India and was heavily dependent on exports, as it did not have a domestic market. The country's entire output was of the `orthodox' type, which fetched a premium in import markets, Prabhu said.

The basic import duty on tea in India was only 10 per cent. Along with additional duties, the total levy worked out to 19.6 per cent, which might not act as a deterrent for imports. The total incidence would be only 14.40 per cent as the five per cent special import duty would lapse by mar 31 next year, he said.

Describing the centre's decision as `unilateral,' Ashraff also expressed concern that Pakistan, the third largest importer of tea in the world, with 1,40,000 tonnes, had so far neither conferred `most favoured nation' status to India, nor made tea from India freely importable into that country.

It was also surprising to note that even tea waste could be freely imported into India, when it's sale in local markets was regulated by the tea waste (control) order and exports were banned as a matter of public policy, he said.

Ashraff urged the centre to restore status-quo-ante in respect of plantation commodities by continuing to retain tea, coffee, natural rubber and cardamom in the restricted list of imports even in respect of Saarc countries.