New Delhi: Exporters are facing rising freight costs, shipping delays, shortage and non-availability of containers and congestion at ports. All these factors have led to an adverse impact on the trade.
To address these issues, the Union government organised an inter-ministerial meeting under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, here today. In the meeting, it was decided to set up a multidisciplinary help desk to support exporters.
Goyal claimed that the decisions taken by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ministry of Railways in the meeting will result in significantly breaking down shipping costs, improving availability of containers, resolving empty containers issue, faster evacuation of export consignments and reducing congestion at the ports.
The Union Minister announced that the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) would allow empty containers to be stored for 90 days in the yard at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) free of cost and also slash the loading and handling charges “significantly”.
Chairman and Cheif Executive Officer of the Railway Board, Satish Kumar, announced that the charges of Rs 3000 that were being levied beyond 90 days, are now reduced to Rs. 1500. Further, the storage and handling rates will be reduced for containers from Rs 9000 to Rs. 2000 (for a 40-feet container) and from Rs 6000 to Rs. 1000 (for a 20-feet container).
The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) announced that they were chartering container ships to significantly increase the container capacities. It was announced that on an immediate basis, capacity will be enhanced by 9000 twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs). The SCI will also buy an additional five container ships to further enhance cargo handling capacity. The shipping lines assured that all charges like container transportation and Lift on-lift off at yards would be embedded in the delivery order given to shippers.
Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shipping, T.K. Ramachandran said the port capacities have already been enhanced by 2.3 million TEUs.
It was decided at the meeting that private container yards would have to mandatorily register themselves with GST authorities and that it would not accept any charges in cash to stop illegal profiteering arising out of shortage and delay.
The Chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Unmesh Sharad Wagh, claimed steps were already taken to eliminate any congestion and bottlenecks. To enhance export-related processes, he said traffic delays near and around JNPA will be minimized and simultaneous container scanning at JNPA will be implemented for faster clearances and reduced turnaround time.
The Civil Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam announced that all efforts will be taken to ensure faster movement of air cargo and reduce turnover time.
Revenue Secretary, Sanjay Malhotra said that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will ensure that custom clearances at the ports will be expedited by simultaneous screening of two twenty-foot containers.
Goyal urged all stakeholders to make concerted efforts to significantly mitigate the difficulties and address the issues faced by the exporters, effectively deploy multi-disciplinary capabilities and adopt a ‘whole of the government’ approach to ensure that no logistic difficulty is faced by the exporters. Due to the current geopolitical tensions, Red Sea Crisis, Houthi operations, ongoing wars and its impact on international trade there was a need to engage with a multidisciplinary team, he said.
At the end of the meeting, the representatives of exporters led by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) expressed satisfaction with the present availability of containers and expressed that the immediate steps being taken by the government would result in significantly easing the congestion, delay and freight hike and would enhance the space availability on the outgoing container ships.
Goyal assured them that the Government will continue to regularly monitor the situation and that the next review is scheduled towards the end of October 2024.
The meeting was attended by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce & Industry today in New Delhi. Among the stakeholders, exporters and shippers (represented by FIEO), the Container Corporation, the Shipping Corporation of India, the Freight Forwarder Association, transporters, ICD/CFS operators and private Shipping lines were present.
Collectively, decisions were taken to promote a trust-based working environment for faster processing of cargo during exports.
– global bihari bureau
