Director-General (Shipping) Says That FDI Is Needed To Give A Boost To Coastal Shipping In India

Amitabh Kumar, the Director-General of shopping said that there is an urgent need to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into the maritime sector. He said, since the cost of finance was high in the country, FDI can give a boost to coastal shipping. To be able to attract overseas investments into the sector, he said that the regulatory regime has to be relaxed.

In an interview with Business Line, he said that the foreign investment regulatory norms could be relaxed in order to facilitate 49 per cent overseas investment to stimulate coastal shipping, with 51 per cent remaining with the Indians in order to retain the ownership within the country. Moreover, Indians living abroad should not be permitted to invest in the maritime sector for the purpose and the vessels could be registered in India.

He said that the Union Finance Minister should be reducing taxes to bring down costs. Availability of cargos was another problem they were facing, and the ports should set up assigned coastal cargo berths. Kumar also said that multi-modal Logistics Park were coming up in the country to acknowledge some of these issues.

“Logistics cost should be brought down substantially in India to make the industry competitive and for the purpose there should be greater investment in coastal shipping, in building up infrastructure for inland transport of cargo, and strengthening infrastructure. But the reverse is happening and there is greater investment in building up the road network and the railway network. There are several compulsions for it. But it is a major challenge," said Amitabh Kumar to Business Line.