Govt announces steps to resolve shipping related woes of traders

The government on Thursday announced steps, including reducing certain charges at ports and purchase of five additional second-hand container vessels by SCI, to resolve shipping sector-related problems of exporters and importers.

These measures were announced after a meeting of all the concerned stakeholders of the international trade segment, including senior officials of ministries like commerce and industry, shipping, ports, finance, civil aviation and railways; apex exporters body FIEO (federation of Indian export organisations), customs officials, freight forwarders, transport operators and shipping companies.

Exporting community and experts have flagged shipping sector issues which are hurting the country's exports, which has contracted by 9.3 per cent in August. The issues figured in the discussions include container shortage, surge in ocean freight rate and shipping cost, shipping delays at the Indian ports, and turnaround time at the ports.

Briefing media after the deliberations, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that several issues were discussed to look at addressing the challenges that exporters and importers are facing in the shipping area.

"I am confident that it (decisions taken today) will result in significantly bringing down the shipping cost, improve the availability of empty containers, help faster evacuation of export consignments, and significantly reduce the congestion at ports," he said.

It was announced that the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will "purchase five additional second-hand container vessels" to further boost cargo handling capacity.

The SCI also announced that they are chartering container ships to significantly increase the container capacities, on an immediate basis capacity will be enhanced by 9,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit).

The Railway board and Container Corporation announced that empty containers can now be stored at the yard at zero cost for 90 days. The charges of Rs 3,000, that is being levied beyond 90 days, are now halved to Rs 1,500.

Further, the storage and handling rates will be reduced for containers from Rs 9,000 to Rs 2,000 (for a 40 ft container) and from Rs 6,000 to Rs 1,000 (for a 20 ft container).

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) announced that custom clearances at the ports will be expedited by simultaneous screening of two twenty feet containers.

Further, the shipping ministry said that the port capacities have already been enhanced by 2.3 million TEUs.

Furthermore,  the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) assured to eliminate any congestion and bottleneck at NhavaSheva port.

It was also decided that private container yards will have to mandatorily register themselves with GST authorities and should not accept any charges in cash in order to ensure illegal profiteering arising out of shortage and delay.

The shipping lines assured that all charges like container transportation and Lift-on-Lift-off at yards would be embedded in the delivery order given to shippers.