Explained: Why the govt plans to scrap the decades-old Coffee Act | Explained News,The Indian Express
The government is planning to replace the 80-year-old Coffee Act with the new Coffee (Promotion and Development Bill), 2022, which has been listed for the Monsoon Session of Parliament. Here's why
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is planning to replace the 80-year-old Coffee Act with the new Coffee (Promotion and Development Bill), 2022, which has been listed for the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
The Coffee Act, 1942 was first introduced during World War II, in order to protect the struggling Indian coffee industry from the economic downturn caused by the war. The government is now trying to scrap the law because it claims that many of the provisions have become redundant and are too restrictive.
The government has also proposed to repeal the decades old laws on tea, spices and rubber, and introduce new legislations in order to increase the ease of doing business and promote the development of these sectors.
“These are very old laws and the idea is only to simplify them, make it easier to do business, ensure that the small people in the different areas like coffee growing, tea growing do not have to suffer from high levels of compliance burden,” Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told PTI earlier this month.
In the 1930s, the Indian coffee industry was facing significant problems, such as large-scale damage by pests and diseases, and the global economic downturn caused by the Great Depression. With coffee planters making significant losses, the government passed the Coffee Cess Act (XIV of 1935) and established the first Indian Cess Committee in November 1935, in order to promote the sale of coffee and increase consumption of Indian coffee at home and abroad.
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