BackGovernment grants infrastructure status to shipyard industry
The infrastructure status will help private shipyards avail cheaper financing
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New Delhi: The government has granted infrastructure status to the shipyard industry, a move that will help the sectoral players get long-term financing at cheaper rates.
A Gazette notification issued by the economic affairs department in the finance ministry last month mentioned an “updated Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure."
“The new list incorporates the following change to the notification dated October 13, 2014: Under the Category of ‘Transport’ a new sub-sector—Shipyards is added," the notification stated.
The move will benefit private shipyards. The transport sector now has seven sub-sectors—roads and bridges, ports, shipyards, inland waterways, airport, railway tracks and urban public transport.
The infrastructure status would help shipyards avail cheaper financing. At present, companies pay an average interest of 14-15% on their borrowings. The status is also expected to give a boost to the government’s Make in India programme as cheaper finance will help Indian shipbuilders overcome, to a large extent, cost disadvantage on building ships.
With this, the shipyard industry will be able to avail flexible structuring of long-term project loans, long-term funding from infrastructure funds at lower interest rates and longer tenure equivalent to the economic life of their assets, relaxed external commercial borrowing norms, issuance of infrastructure bonds for meeting working capital requirements as well as benefits under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The notification defined shipyards as “a floating or land-based facility with the essential features of waterfront, turning basin, berthing and docking facility, slipways and/or ship lifts, and which is self sufficient for carrying on shipbuilding/repair/breaking activities".
Other infrastructure sectors include energy, water and sanitation, communication and social and commercial infrastructure. Energy includes electricity generation, transmission and distribution, oil pipelines; oil, gas, liquified natural gas storage facility and gas pipelines.
Solid waste management, water supply pipelines, water treatment plants, irrigation projects, storm water drainage system, slurry pipelines and sewage collection, treatment and disposal system are part of water and sanitation.
Communication includes fixed network and towers of telecommunication while social and commercial infrastructure includes education institutions, hospitals, three-star or higher category hotels, common infrastructure for industrial parks, post-harvest storage infrastructure, cold chains and convention centres with a project cost of over ₹ 300 crore each.
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