WASHINGTON: Tax incentive, tax exemption, easing of monetization of operational ports, enhanced funds, etc are the pointers that the port sector is looking forward to in the upcoming Union Budget to be presented on February 1. “It will be helpful if the ministry of finance comes up with some tax incentive for port-based industry. This port-based industry could be anything, right from cement to power to marine to petrochemicals, etc,” said Neeraj Bansal, deputy chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT). Apart from that, the other expectation by the public port is to have policies that will promote coastal and marine sectors.
“The ports sector has been grappling with issues such as last mile connectivity. The allocation of corpus to government backed bodies like Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited should be enhanced with a clear road map laid down for them to take pro-active role in improving the logistics connectivity to port projects,” opined Sandeep Upadhyay, managing director and CEO at Centrum Infrastructure Advisory Ltd. His other expectation is that the finance ministry should allocate enhanced corpus of funds for improving connectivity to greenfield as well as operational port projects by carving out a portion of dedicated funds like National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Once connectivity is prioritised, there is a strong possibility of reviving financing interest from multilateral-funding agencies and infrastructure focused funds in the ports sector. Easing of monetization of operational port assets by relaxing exit clause in the concession agreement is the other reform which is may be a much anticipated welcome move for the private ports operating on Indian shores.
Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) too has some expectations to help either in the form of policies or assistance in getting funds. For example, for the first time, IWAI is already in the process of raising funds through infrastructure bonds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore, the bond will be out in February 2017. There is a major plan to have terminals, ports and jetties on the inland waterways for which private participation and funding is being worked at.
