All the tea gardens in India (regardless of size and ownership) that are registered with Tea Board are eligible for availing financial assistance under the scheme. The eligibility conditions and other prerequisites for availing the loan and subsidy are as under:

1. The applicant should not be a defaulter in payment of his membership fee to TRA/UPASI-TRF and should hold the valid current membership. (Growers whose holding size is below 50 ha. are exempted).



2. The applicant should have paid his subscription in full to the National Tea Research Foundation. (Small growers and sick tea gardens identified as per the provisions under clause 16B of Tea Act. are exempted).



3. Provident fund dues of the applicant tea garden should not exceed Rs. 10,000/- at the time of submission of application. Where the P.F .liability exceed Rs.10,000/-,the application will be accepted provided it is backed by a Court decree or written consent from the P.F. authorities for allowing the payment of arrear Provident Fund dues in installments. For such applicants, conditional approval will be issued with a stipulation that subsidy would be released only if they are found to be regular in repayment of the dues as per the agreement.



4. The applicant should not be a defaulter under any of the erstwhile loan schemes of Tea Board at the time of submission of application. (Tea Board shall have the right to adjust sanctioned amount of subsidy with defaulted dues if the applicant is found to be a defaulter at the time of releasing the subsidy). The loan assistance will, however, be considered to such defaulters who have already entered into an agreement with Tea Board for liquidating the past outstanding dues within a definite time frame and are found to be regular in repayment of the dues as per the agreement.



5. The applicant should not have been declared as willful defaulter by any bank. Applicants are required to submit a no-objection certificate from their respective bankers for availing the loan from SPTF.



6. For facilitating the field offices in carrying out pre-approval inspection in time, the applicants should submit their application to the nearest field office of Tea Board, 75 days before the commencement of the field activity for which the financial assistance is being sought for. (The locations of the field offices are indicated in Annexure-1)



7. Field operations should be commenced by the applicants only after receiving a NOC (No Objection Certificate) issued by the concerned field offices, after carrying out pre-approval inspection.



8. Only one application per garden in a financial year shall be entertained for consideration of subsidy.



9. In the case of loans/subsidy for replanting/ replacement planting activities proposed to be undertaken during 2007 planting season, uprooting, soil rehabilitation and land preparation should have been completed in the target area, and it should be ready for re-plantation/replacement in the current planting season.



10. Normally an application should be made for re-plantation/replacement planting/rejuvenation as the case may be for a minimum extent of 2.5% of the total area under tea in any year. However, upward/downward relaxations in the specified area may be permitted on a case to case basis.



11. Where the total extent of old aged sections with bushes over 50 years of age exceed 40% of the total tea area of the gardens, application for loan or subsidy will not be admitted for an area less than the stipulated minimum area of 2.5% of the area under tea per year until the entire bushes over 50 years have been replanted/ rejuvenated. Relaxation of this condition will be considered only for such gardens where the total area under old tea (more than 50 years of age) is less than 35%.



12. However, any borrower who defaults in repayment of dues (interest/principal) to the SPTF during the course of the project period as per the given repayment schedule will not be entitled for further loans under the scheme from the date of default.

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