Ministry Proposes Cess On Port Cargo
The ministry of surface transport has proposed a cess on cargo to meet operational and maintenance expenditure on all railway and road linkages to the 11 major ports.
Officials sources said here that the cess collected would not form part of the ports revenues, but would be credited to a separate fund, which would be administered by the ministry.
At present, all operational and maintenance expenditure for the road and rail networks are funded by the ports from their own revenue stream.
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However, the state governments and the ministry of railways are responsible for maintaining linkages outside the ports.
Sources said the state governments and the ministry of railways have told the ministry of surface transport that it was not possible for them to meet this expenditure.
Accordingly, a need was felt to develop another revenue stream to recover the costs from users for maintaining these linkages. Alternative methods like levying tolls were not viable since there could be user resistance, the sources said.
However, the sources said any such levies would have to be cleared by the Tariff Authority for Major Ports as these have a bearing on the cargo or vessel related tariffs.
In January, the authority had endorsed a ministry proposal to levy a cess on oil and liquid bulk cargo, which was to be charged to a separate contingency fund for hazard management purposes.
The sources said the Maharashtra and Gujarat governments had already planned for a levying cess on cargo to recover the cost of providing the linkages.
Some states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, who have also proposed setting up large ports, are also expected to adopt the Maharashtra model for recovering the cost of providing the linkages.
The Maharashtra government will invest about Rs 500 crore through two special purpose vehicles the Maharashtra Road Development Corporation and the Maharashtra Rail Development Corporation to provide linkages to the Wadhawan port.
A cargo levy of Rs 3 per tonne will be charged to recover the costs.
Gujarat too has worked out a similar levy for providing linkages to the five private sector ports coming up in the state.