Large ships get infrastructure status in boost to maritime industry

Move seen to ease financing woes of India's nascent shipbuilding industry

The Ministry of Finance has finally given infrastructure status to large ships, meeting one of the shipping industry’s longest-standing demands. This comes seven months after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced it in her Budget speech.

 

In a notification on September 19, the department of economic affairs of the finance ministry notified a modification to the harmonised master list of infrastructure sectors.

 

“‘Large ships’ are included in the harmonised master list of infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of ‘Transport and Logistics’,” the finance ministry’s gazette notification said.

 

A footnote in the notification further explained that