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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

15/09/22 05:39 AM IST

Draft Indian Ports Bill, 2022

In News 
  • The Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways is holding four rounds of consultations on the draft Indian Ports Bill 2022 that will replace the 1908 Act.
Provisions in the draft bill
  • It sought to empower the Maritime State Development Council (MSDC) to formulate a national plan, for the development of major and non-major ports.
  • Inquiry: To order an appropriate inquiry if any port contravenes the national plan.
  • Empowered the Centre: To make a port non-operational if it was not in consonance with the national plan.
  • Penalties: It prescribed penalties including imprisonment for non-compliance with the MSDC’s directions by port authorities, port officials and other persons.
  • The draft Bill 2022 empowers the MSDC to formulate a national plan, to be notified in the official gazette, for the development of major and non-major ports.
  • The 2022 draft Bill has open-ended provisions that authorise the Central government to entrust any administrative and financial functions to the MSDC.
  • The composition of the MSDC provided by the draft Bill also tilts towards the Centre as it provides for the composition five Secretaries and one Joint Secretary to the Central Government, besides the administrators of the coastal UTs, as members.
Concerns 
  • Maritime State development council was created by executive order in 1997 with the Union Minister of Shipping as chairperson and the Ministers in charge of ports of the maritime States/Union Territories (UTs) as members.
  • It serves as an apex advisory body for the coordinated development of major ports and non-major ports. It has met only 18 times in the last 25 years. The Union Ministry of Shipping provides secretarial services for its meetings.
  • The 2022 draft Bill gives statutory status to MSDC along with wide-ranging powers and functions and makes it a permanent body with its own office, staff, accounts and audit.
Suggestions 
  • In contrast to the centralising tendency reflected in the draft Bill, most ports in the United States are owned and managed at the local level by counties and municipalities with port operations largely in private hands.
  • This is also the same for ports in Germany which are also managed at the municipal and regional levels.
  • The Centre/MSDC may play a more active role with regard to non-major ports if they are performing poorly. But data show that non-major ports have fared much better than major ports. Between 1993-94 and 2021-22, the share of the total cargo handling of non-major ports went up from 8% to 45%, and the total share of cargo traffic of non-major ports was 14% compared to the 4.8% of major ports.
  • The major ports performed the various port functions with their own staff and equipment as public sector enterprises, maritime States developed non-major ports almost entirely on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis.
  • According to the 2011 World Bank Report-‘Regulation of the Indian Port Sector’, non-major ports are perceived as more business-oriented, customer friendly, cheaper and in general more efficient.
Way forward 
  • In keeping with port reform strategies worldwide, the Central Government should work towards greater decentralisation, deregulation, corporatisation and private sector participation in the ports sector.
  • It should give the concerned maritime States and city municipal corporations a substantial equity stake in corporatised major ports.
  • It should limit itself to overseeing only the ‘higher functions’ of border control, port security, competition policy, hinterland connectivity and environment protection.
Source- The Hindu 

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