Press Information Bureau

An inter-ministerial meeting was held in New Delhi today under the chairmanship of Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal to address rising freight cost, shipping delays, shortage & non-availability of containers and congestion at the ports leading to difficulties being faced by exporters and adverse impact on the trade.

Addressing the meeting, Shri Goyal said 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 Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has decided to allow empty containers to be stored for a period of 90 days in the yard at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) free of cost and has also slashed the loading and handling charges significantly. Chairman and CEO, Railway Board, Shri Satish Kumar announced that the charges of Rs 3000 that is being levied beyond 90 days, is 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 ft container) and from Rs 6000 to Rs. 1000 (for a 20 ft container).

Commerce and Industry Minister 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 ‘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.

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) announced that they are chartering container ships to significantly increase the container capacities. It was announced that on an immediate basis, capacity will be enhanced by 9000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEUs). The SCI will also buy 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, Shri T.K. Ramachandran announced that the port capacities have already been enhanced by 2.3 million TEUs. It was decided at the meeting that private container yards will have to mandatorily register themselves with GST authorities and that it would not accept any charges in cash in order to stop illegal profiteering arising out of shortage and delay.

Chairman, JNPT, Shri Unmesh Sharad Wagh assured that steps have already been taken to eliminate any congestion and bottlenecks. To enhance export related processes, traffic delays near & around JNPA will be minimized and simultaneous container scanning at JNPA will be implemented for faster clearances & reduced turnaround time.

Civil Aviation Secretary announced that all efforts will be taken to ensure faster movement of air cargo and reduce turnover time.

Revenue Secretary, Shri 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 two twenty feet containers.

In the meeting it was decided that to set up a multidisciplinary help desk to support exporters.

At the end of the meeting, the representatives of exporters led by 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.

In his concluding remarks, Shri Goyal said that the Government will continue to regularly monitor the situation with the next review is scheduled towards the end of October. Expressing satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting, Shri Goyal asserted that every department in the Government has contributed collectively to resolve the crises resulting in significant cut down of shipping costs, increasing availability of containers and expediting evacuation of export consignments reducing congestion at the ports.

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 & shippers (represented by FIEO), Container Corporation, Shipping Corporation of India, Freight forwarder association, transporters, ICD/CFS operators and private Shipping lines were present.

The meeting was convened to discuss and resolve concerns and reports related to rising freight cost, shipping delays, shortage & non-availability of containers and congestion at the ports due to emerging geopolitical & economic scenario leading to difficulties being faced by exporters and adverse impact on the trade. Collectively, decisions were taken to promote a trust-based working environment for faster processing of cargo during exports.

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