Union Shipping Minister GK Vasan informed that his ministry would announce in a couple of months new guidelines on tariff fixation for prospective projects.
He said this while speaking at a maritime summit in Mumbai.
Reports suggest that the ministry cleared a plan to allow port-terminal operators the freedom to fix their service rates.
According to the plan, all future projects would be exempt from the tariff guidelines of port regulator Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP).
The move is intended to boost private investment in the countryÂ’s port sector. TAMP, which was established in 1997 following port privatization, currently approves tariffs applied at all cargo terminals in major state-owned ports, while non-major ports, which are governed by state governments, are free to fix their rates.
There is no proposal to terminate the regulatory authority, but its role could be limited to administering tariff fixation methods adopted by private port-terminal operators and addressing competition issues, reports suggest.
The move comes in the wake of increasing concerns that Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) projects at state-owned ports are not attracting greater interest from private investors because of pricing regulation.
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