BackGovt set for unified licensing of cargo handling agents
The shipping ministry will frame rules to issue a unified permit to cargo-handlers at non-mechanized berths at ports owned by the Union govt
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Bangalore: Casting aside objections from stevedores and shore-handling agents, the shipping ministry will frame rules to issue a unified permit to cargo-handlers at non-mechanized berths at ports owned by the Union government.
Besides allowing private firms to set up cargo terminals, these ports also run berths where importers and exporters are permitted to handle cargo by engaging service providers such as equipment providers, transporters, stevedores and shore-handling agents.
Stevedores load and unload cargo to and from ships while shore-handling agents undertake carting, storing and delivering the consignment to customers in the case of imports and receiving the cargo, storing, feeding and loading them on a ship for exports.
These agents either undertake stevedoring on their own or engage another agency for the purpose. About 90% of these agents undertake stevedoring too, according to shipping industry executives. The proportion of work involved between stevedoring and shore-handling operations is generally about three to seven.
Currently, only stevedores are licensed while shore-handling agents are not. Stevedoring firms buy annual permits from a port after paying an annual fee of ₹ 4,000 to ₹ 1 lakh.
The Major Port Trusts Act that governs these ports requires licensing of stevedores and shore-handling agents, a five-member panel led by Paul Antony, chairman of Cochin Port, wrote in a July report submitted to the shipping ministry.
The panel recommended that stevedoring and shore-handling agents be licensed under a single agency. This calls for regulations to license stevedore-cum-shore-handling agents for composite handling instead of licensing only stevedores.
The panel further recommended that the port tariff regulator—the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP)—should notify ceiling rates for cargo handling by these combined entities.
However, stevedores say it is advisable to issue separate permits for stevedoring and shore-handling. “Issuing a combined licence for stevedoring and shore handling will work fine in the case of bulk cargo," said K.V. Krishna Kumar, president of the Federation of Associations of Stevedores, a lobby group. “But for break-bulk cargo and containers, it may not be practical to operate a combined licence."
Kumar said it was not a “legal requirement under the Major Port Trusts Act" for TAMP to notify rates for stevedoring as suggested by the panel. “The Act does not apply to stevedores as they are not persons authorized by the ports but are only licensed to act on their own behalf. Licensing does not mean authorization," Kumar added.
In an interim order passed earlier this month, a division bench of Calcutta high court ruled that the Major Port Trusts Act empowered Kolkata Port Trust to authorize any person to perform shore-handling services on agreed terms and conditions via a tender, including notifying ceiling rates for such services.
The division bench order came in response to an appeal filed by the Kolkata Port seeking to reverse an earlier order of a single bench that stayed the tendering process after hearing petitions filed by shore handling agents.
“The division bench order clearly says that Kolkata Port can issue licences to shore-handling agents through a tendering process for which ceiling rates should be notified by TAMP. There cannot be one rule for Kolkata Port and another for the rest of the major ports," said Ramakant Burman, general secretary of Haldia Dock Officers’ Forum.
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