India to pass a new bill for PPP pact in port sector

The Indian government will table a new bill to facilitate a model agreement by way of Public-Private Partnership in the port sector. “In the next two months, we will have a new model agreement, hopefully by June 30. Ministry of shipping is coming up with a separate bill that can handle long term concessional arrangement between port and terminal operators” said Rajive Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Shipping at the CEOs’ Forum during the Maritime India Summit in Mumbai. Kumar said there are several investment opportunities in the dredging and barges development as the coastal cargo movement is set to rise by six times in the next 10 years. To make the coastal cargo and inland cargo movement economically feasible, Kumar pointed out that duty on bunker fuel has been removed for containers, adding that the objective is to bring down bunker fuel cost further for all cargoes. States have been requested to bring down VAT on bunker fuel and three states have responded, he said. The government is also seriously considering revamping the role of the Port Regulator – TAMP (Tariff Authority for Major Ports). Responding to a query from the forum, Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari said, “we want to close TAMP chapter immediately and the process is on to replace it with a new system.”