The Hindu Business Line : TAMP to be made appellate tribunal

THE Union Shipping Ministry has started work on converting the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) into an appellate tribunal by drafting a Cabinet proposal to amend the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, for facilitating this task.

While amending the MPT Act, the Government will strive to include those major ports that continue to operate under the trustee set-up as well as the major port trusts that are converted into corporate entities under the ambit of the proposed appellate tribunal, Government sources said.

Under the existing regulatory set-up, the service providers at major ports will have to submit proposals to TAMP and seek its approval for fixing and revising tariffs.

In the new set-up, the service providers can fix and revise tariffs on their own without seeking the regulator's approval. But, users will have the liberty to approach the appellate tribunal for airing their grievances on the tariffs thus fixed and revised by the service providers.

The existing tariff regulator for major ports — TAMP — only has jurisdiction over major ports functioning under the trustee set-up. Once these ports are corporatised in line with a policy decision of the Government, they will move out of the fold of TAMP, which was created in 1997 by amending the MPT Act. Since the process of seeking Cabinet approval and getting Parliamentary sanction for amending the MPT Act to convert TAMP into an appellate tribunal will take time, the existing tariff regulator will be continued with till the exercise is completed.

"The Government cannot afford to create a void in the regulatory mechanism while transforming the role of the regulator into an appellate body," a senior official with the Shipping Ministry told Business Line.

Accordingly, the term of the present Chairman of TAMP, Mr S. Sathyam, is being extended till he attained 65 years or till the time the proposed appellate body is set up, whichever is earlier.

Mr Sathyam took charge as TAMP chairman on April 11, 1997 for a period of five years or till he attained the age of 65 years, whichever was earlier. He is being given an extension since he has two more years to turn 65, the official said.

TAMP was set up on April 10, 1997 for an initial period of five years to oversee the task of fixing and revising the tariffs at major ports, which were hitherto done by the port trusts themselves with the prior approval of the Central Government.

Thus, the powers of TAMP was limited to services provided by the major ports and private operators at major ports.

The plan to convert TAMP into an appellate tribunal was first mooted by a committee headed by Mr C. Babu Rajeev, the former chairman of Kochi Port Trust, which was vested with the task of over-hauling the MPT Act, 1963, and the Indian Ports Act, 1908, to bring them in tune with the liberalised scenario.

While approving amendments to the MPT Act for creating TAMP, the Union Cabinet had fixed an initial time-frame of five years for the tariff regulator on the premise that a tariff regulator would not be necessary till market forces came into play to fix and revise tariffs at major ports.

Five years down the line, the Shipping Ministry feels that sufficient competition has been created in the major ports arena for market forces to come into play and fix the tariffs.

"Still, we feel that there is a strong case for some check on arbitrary fixation of tariffs by appointing a regulator in the form of an appellate tribunal,'' the official pointed out.

Under the new plan, market forces will come into play in the fixation of tariffs with an appellate tribunal at the helm to take care of user grievances.

Headquarters to be shifted

NEW DELHI: Lobbying has started for relocating the headquarters of the tariff regulator for major ports from Delhi to a port city.

In June 2000, the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation (CCA) had directed the Shipping Ministry to consider moving TAMP from Delhi to a port city.

While coastal locations such as Visakhapatnam and Chennai were earlier doing the rounds because of the involvement of parties such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and DMK in the NDA Government, the latest destination to be considered is Mumbai, being the port city where the Union Shipping Minister, Mr Ved Prakash Goyal has strong roots.

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