The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has initiated steps to permit cargo berths/ terminals run by the state-owned major port authorities to set market rates, a senior Ministry official has said.
“We have set up a committee to review the entire tariff mechanism for the port authority operated berths as well so that we draw a roadmap for enabling them also to migrate to a market based tariff mechanism and everyone operate in a completely market based tariff ecosystem,” R Lakshmanan, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said while addressing the ‘Global Ports and Shipping Summit’ in Mumbai on Thursday.
The Major Port Authorities Act, passed by Parliament and notified in the gazette on 18 February 2021, gives freedom to the 11 ports it governs, and new cargo handling terminals set up by private firms at these ports, to levy market determined rates, by scrapping the Tariff Authority for Major Ports or TAMP, the erstwhile rate regulator for state-run ports.
However, the fate of the old cargo handlers was uncertain, with no clarity on allowing them to levy market rates.
The Ministry also proposes to allow old public-private-partnership (PPP) projects operating prior to 2019 to migrate to a market pricing regime.