The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture asked the state-run Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) to review its fleet acquisition orders already placed.
SCI decided to acquire 62 vessels based on the resources available for such a huge procurement rather than based on need, the committee said.
The committee feels that SCI’s fleet acquisition order may lead the firm into financial trouble like Air India. While the company intended to buy 62 vessels during the 11th Plan, only 45 could be ordered.
The company put on hold the acquisition of the balance 17 vessels owing to sluggishness in the global freight market.
The Committee recommended to the firm that the remaining orders may not be further processed unless and until SCI becomes capable of bearing the liability on its own.
It may be noted that the firm owns 80 vessels of 32.94 lakh gross tonnage and this constitutes around 33 percent of the total domestic tonnage.
SCI was also warned earlier by an internal report of the shipping ministry that the firm may suffer financial crisis owing to vessel acquisition plan which lead it to a “debt-trap, almost on the lines of Air India”.
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