 Siliguri Tea Auction Centre was inaugurated on 29in October 1976 in presence of Shri S. S. Roy the then Chief Minister of West Bengal and other Central and State Ministers.
Sale proceeds of the inaugural Auction for Rs.5,72,502/- was handed over to Late Indira Gandhi the then Prime Minister of India on 9th December 1976 by Late B. C. Ghosh the then Chairman of Siliguri Tea Auction Committee.
At the start on 29th October 1976, we had 16 Seller members, 132 Buyer members & 7 Broker members with a total registered warehouse space measuring of 39.276 sq.ft. At present we have 359 Seller members, 397 Buyer members, 10 Broker members and a total area of about 5,39,000 sq.ft. registered Warehouse space with the Committee.
As a starting point, about 2.7 m. kg of Teas were sold in the two months available in 1976. The sales reached the peak figure of about 99 m. kg during the year 1988.
A special Relief Auction was organized for Chief Minister Relief Fund and the sale proceeds amounting to Rs. 1,09,500/- was handed over to Shri Jyoti Basu, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, on 17l February 1979. in a solemn function.
On 10th April 1979, Shri Jyoti Basu, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal had kindly laid the foundation stone of the Auction Committee Building.
On 10th September 1981, the Auction Sale in the Ground Floor Hall of the own building of Siliguri Tea Auction Committee was started.
During the year 1982. Siliguri Tea Auctions attained the glory of being the biggest CTC Tea selling Centre in the world.
From the 3rd week of June 1983, collection of a Building Fund @ 1 paisa per kg of Tea sold in Auction from each member of the three sections, namely, Sellers, Buyers and Brokers was started for construction of the Building including a sophisticated Auction Hall.
On 24th June 1984. the 1st Floor Auction Hall was formally inaugurated by Late B. C. Ghosh, erstwhile Chairman of the Committee though the said Hall with a sitting capacity of 205 could be completed in all respects in early 1985 and the venue of the sales was shifted to the Auction Hall, which was later on dedicated to the memory of Late B. C. Ghosh and was christened as 'Birendra Chandra Hall'.
Central Air Conditioning system for the Hall was put on stream in June 1989.
Dust Auction Hall was inaugurated on 15th March 1999. On that day a special Auction was held in new Hall. The sale proceeds of Rs.3,21,000/- was donated to Chief Minister's Relief Fund.
The total cost of construction of the Dust Auction Hall with A.C. was Rs.8.67.729.87.
The STAC office was computerized on 15l March 1999 with e-mail facility, which was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Minister Shri Asok Narayan Bhattacharya & Shri S. S. Ahuja, IAS, Chairman Tea Board.
The Logo of STAC was launched on 20th October, 1998.
An amount of Rs. 1,00,046/- was handed over to Shri Asok Narayan Bhattacharya, Minister on 22.12.1999 as contribution towards Orissa Super Cyclone victims.
Special Relief Auction was held on 18/11/2000. The total sale proceeds of the Auction amounting to Rs.6.61.000/- was handed over to Shri Budhadev Bhattacharya. Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal on A/C of Chief Ministers" General Relief Fund for the victims caused by unprecedented flash flood in West Bengal in the year 2000.
STAC has celebrated its Silver Jubilee year in the year 2001. Various colourful programme with a Seminar on Tea & Health in collaboration with Tea Board was organized on the occasion of Silver Jubilee year.
Electronic Auction started in the year 2005 from Sale No.23 and continued upto year 2006.
Instant Auction Sale was first time introduced in Siliguri Tea Auction Centre with regular Auction Sale in the month of June. 2008.
Website of the Committee was inaugurated on 26th July. 2008.
Cash & Carry system was introduced during the year 2009, Sale No.23 dated 04/06/2009.
Settlement Banking system with Indusind Bank Ltd. was started from Sale No.24 of the year 2010.
100% e.auction at STAC was inaugurated on 05/10/2010. E.auction sale was started from Sale No.40.
149 years age old manual Tea Auction system (started during the year 1861) in India was fully converted to Electronic Auction system from October 2010.
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