New bill for PPP port projects to be tabled soon

MUMBAI: The government will in the next two months table a new bill that will facilitate a model agreement for forging public-private partnerships 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", Rajive Kumar, secretary, Ministry of Shipping said at the Maritime India Summit.

Kumar said there are several investment opportunities in the dredging and barges development as the coastal cargo movement is set to rise by 6 times in the next 10 years.

Kumar said the objective is to bring down bunker fuel cost further for all cargoes. States have been requested to bring down Value Added Tax ( 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), said shipping minister Nitin Gadkari.

"We want to close TAMP chapter immediately and the process is on to replace it with a new system," he added.

Different tariff models have been prevalent at different ports, sometimes different models in the same port, a practise much criticised by the industry.