The government is mulling a "reorganisation" of port tariffs regulator TAMP, including assessing if there is a need for such a mechanism to be in place and whether privately-held non-major ports enjoy softer treatment, the Director General of Shipping (DGS) said today.
"There is a reorganisation of the TAMP (tariff authority of major ports) that is being considered. In what form it will reorganised is still being worked out," DGS Gautam Chatterjee told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on ship building organised by the Exim Bank here.
"The new thinking is looking at it absolutely from scratch and the need for TAMP," he added.
The industry has repeatedly been demanding disbanding of the TAMP saying there is no level playing field between the major ports and the privately-held non-major ones.
The previous UPA government had partially heeded to the demands last July, when it allowed new projects coming up at major ports to set their own tariffs. However, the existing projects continue being under the older TAMP regime.
There have been allegations that terminal operators at major ports have been diverting traffic to terminals they operate in non-major ports, as they feel that the tariffs set by TAMP are very low.
Speaking on the Government's thinking on the issue, Chatterjee said, "What should it (TAMP) regulate. If it is regulating only major ports and not minor ports, is it a desirable thing?"
The shipping regulator said that the government is also thinking to incentivise the ship building activity in the country through multiple interventions.
These may include some variant of a controversial 30 per cent subsidy scheme for shipbuilders and having clauses like defence offset contracts where local manufacturing is encouraged.
An industry player, however, said that the subsidy is not on the agenda of the government but there are other "non-cash" incentives like ordering from the state-run enterprises and defence sector, infrastructure status to the ship building sector and also a ship building development fund to provide soft loans to players, in the offing.
There is also a likelihood of incentivising the process of increasing the indgenisation and giving some subsidy for the portion of the locally sourced costs, a third person aware of the development said.
Apart from that, the new Government is also looking at launching a holistic policy to utilise the untapped potential of shipping sector, Chatterjee said, adding that this is like a new version of the previous NDA regime's "Sagarmala" project announced under the Prime Ministership of A B Vajpayee.
This will be a comprehensive policy involving usage of ports, inland shipping, domestic shipping, ship building, port connectivity with the hinterland and will also push for a greater coordination between various Government departments, he said.
