In a bid to enable all the 12 major ports in the country to compete with other ports, including those operated by private players, the government is expected to soon allow them to fix tariffs based on market conditions.
“The Major Port Trusts would be free to fix the market linked actual tariff which may be higher or lower than the prevailing reference tariff,” the Shipping Ministry has said in draft guidelines for Tariff Setting in Major Ports, 2013.
The revision of actual tariffs will be permissible only once in a financial year with the new rate taking effect from April 1, the ministry said seeking suggestions on guidelines by the last week of the current month.
It also made it clear that though the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) will fix the reference tariff for each port for different commodities, the Major Port Trusts (MPTs) can set their own tariff, which can be higher or lower than the reference tariff.
“The Reference Tariff will be applicable for 5 years indexed to inflation. To notify the Reference Tariff for a particular commodity, TAMP will take the highest tariff fixed for that commodity in the concerned Major Port under the 2008 guidelines,” it said.
Reference Tariff will be indexed to inflation but only to an extent of 60 per cent of the variation in wholesale price index occurring between January 1 of the year in which the Reference Tariff was originally notified and January 1 of the subsequent relevant year.
As per the draft policy, the MPTs will have to inform the TAMP at least 90 days in advance if the proposed actual tariff is higher than the reference tariff.
The MPTs, as per the draft, will also furnish to TAMP, monthly reports on Cargo traffic, Berth day output, Average turnaround time of ships, Average pre-berthing waiting time, percentage idle time of total time of vessels at berth as well as the Actual Tariff levied for each MPT owned Berth/Terminal within 15 days following the end of each month.
India at present has 12 major ports – Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla under the control of the Centre.
The government is looking at an investment of over Rs 1 lakh crore in major ports, majority of which will come from the private sector, to expand their capacity by 767.15 million tonnes (MT) by 2020.