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Having already decided to unshackle port tariffs at new major ports, the Shipping Ministry is mulling more relaxations to bring about greater parity in pricing at all ports soon, Minister of State Milind Deora said here today.
"We will come out with new rules which will create parity between the pricing at the major ports and the minor ones within a month. This is aimed to increase investments in the sector," Deora told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
Shipping Minister GK Vasan, who was also present, refused to give further details.
He said ever since the announcement of "in-principle" decision to disband the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) this January, the ministry has held extensive consultations with all the stakeholders, including foreign investors.
"We have made note of all the concerns and accordingly the action will be taken. On a prospective basis, all the new projects will definitely enjoy to set their own tariffs, but we need to work on how an already existing project gets benefit of the decision," he said, without disclosing the exact contours about the ministry's thinking.
Deora said a "migration policy" will have to be worked out for the same, but again declined to give exact details.
To boost private sector investments in state-owned ports, the ministry had taken an "in-principle" decision to abolish the tariff setting regulator's oversight for new projects in January.
With a slew of projects being given under the public private partnership mode at the major ports, wherein a private developer builds and operates a terminal for a concession period by bidding the highest revenue share, the TAMP was seen as a factor inhibiting investments.
Some non-major private ports like Mundra are reported to have benefitted through the diktats of the TAMP as traffic has moved out from ports under the TAMP watch like JNPT to non-TAMP faciliities.
According to reports, the private sector operators like DP World and APM have lowered the volume handling because of the prescribed lower tariff, forcing shifting of goods to ports like Mundra.
Vasan said the ministry is targeting to award 30 port projects involving an investment of Rs 25,000 crore and adding 282 mt more annual capacity, this fiscal.
One of the projects, a Rs 940-crore facility at Vishakapatnam has already been awarded, he said.
Last fiscal, the ministry was able to award projects worth over Rs 6,700 crore, as it faced troubles getting security clearances from the home ministry for many of projects.
JNPT, which is working towards enhacing its capacity to 10 million TEUs from the current 4.2 million TEUs, has recived bids from eight participants for the 4.8-million TEUs fourth terminal project, its acting chairman RR Kumar siad.
The bidders include Adani Ports, DP World and PSA among others, he added.
