WASHINGTON: The government has proposed a significant overhaul of the functioning of 12 major ports in the country. The shipping ministry has come out with a draft bill of ‘Major Port Authorities Act, 2016’ which will give port boards more autonomy and flexibility.
Under the proposed act, all future PPP operators will be free to fix tariff based on market conditions and notify the port authority. The board of the port authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets like land. The bill also proposes to empower port authorities to lease land for port related use for upto 40 years and for non-port related use upto 20 years.
The bill also proposes to introduce the concept of internal audit of the functions and activities of the Central Ports on the lines of Companies Act, 2013 along with provisions of CSR and development of infrastructure by port authority. “The proposed bill aims at giving more autonomy and flexibility to the major Ports and to bring in professional approach in their governance. This will help to impart faster and transparent decision making which will benefit the stakeholders,” a government statement said.
The proposed bill has also called for setting up of an independent review board to look into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires, to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to revive such projects and to look into complaints regarding services rendered by the private operators.
The status of port authority will be deemed as local authority so that it could prepare appropriate regulations in respect of the area within the port limits to the exclusion of any central, state or local laws, the bill has proposed.
