- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Narendra Modi cabinet on Wednesday (14) approved a scheme to provide Rs 1,624 crore ($217.5 million) over five years as subsidy to Indian shipping companies in global tenders floated by ministries and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) for import of government cargo, an official statement announced.
As per the statement, registration shall be done online within 72 hours, like the world’s best ships registries, and this will make it easy and attractive to register ships in India and help in boosting the Indian tonnage.
“In addition to this, it is intended to provide 30 days to any in-flagging vessel to replace the crew on board with Indian crew,” the statement added.
Aiming to address the cost disadvantage suffered by Indian flag ships, the country’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in her Union Budget 2021-22 speech announced a scheme providing Rs 1,624 crore over five years to promote flagging of merchant ships in India by providing subsidy support to the country’s shipping companies in global tenders floated by the ministries and CPSEs.
The statement added that steps are also being taken to rationalize the manning requirements on the ships by aligning them with international standards. It also said that despite having a 7,500-kilometre-long coastline, a significant national exim (export import) trade that is steadily growing annually and a policy of 100 per cent foreign direct investment in shipping since 1997, India’s national fleet is proportionately small when compared with its global counterparts.
Prime minister Modi lauded the decision to say it would help in building an ‘Atmanirbhar (self-dependent) India’. “Today’s Cabinet decision will serve as an advantage for Indian shipping companies and strengthen the resolve to build an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” he said in a tweet.
