The days of regulated tariffs in the Indian ports sector could well be over. The government is working on a proposal to replace the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) with an Appellate Authori- ty having a broad supervisory role, under which the major ports would have the freedom to fix and revise tariffs.
The fixing of tariffs by TAMP has rendered major ports in India non-competitive in terms of costs. Vessel related costs here are three times higher than in Singapore, four times higher than in Colombo and almost 10 fold that of in Dubai.