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The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Shipping to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 with the Major Port Trust Authorities Bill, 2016. This will empower the Major Ports to perform with greater efficiency on account of full autonomy in decision-making and by modernising the institutional structure of the Ports, emphasised a release.
With a view to promote the expansion of port infrastructure and facilitate trade and commerce, the proposed Bill aims at decentralising decision-making and infusing professionalism in the governance of ports. The new Bill would help in facilitating faster and transparent decision-making, benefiting the stakeholders and improving project execution capability. The Bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in Central ports to the landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in the operation of Major Ports.
As per the release, the proposed Bill has been prepared after extensive consultation with all the stakeholders and Ministries/Departments. The salient features of the Major Port Trust Authorities Bill are as under:
[a] The Bill is more compact compared to the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 as the number of sections has been reduced to 65 from 134 by eliminating overlapping and obsolete sections.
[b] The new Bill has proposed a simplified composition of the Board of the Port Authority, which will comprise 11 members instead of the present 17 to 19 members representing various interests. A compact Board with professional, independent members will strengthen decision-making and strategic planning. Provision has been made for inclusion of representative of the state government in which the Major Port is located, as well as of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence, Customs, Department of Revenue as members in the Board, apart from a government nominee member and a member representing the employees of the Major Port Authority.
[c] The role of the Tariff Authority for Major Ports [TAMP] has been redefined. The Port Authority has now been given powers to fix tariff, which will be a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects. PPP operators will be free to fix tariff based on market conditions. The Board of the Port Authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets, including land.
[d] An independent Review Board has been proposed to be created to carry out the residual function of the erstwhile TAMP, to look into disputes between ports and PPP concessionaires, to review stressed PPP projects and suggest measures to revive such projects, and to look into complaints regarding services rendered by the ports/private operators operating within the ports.
[e] The Board of the Port Authority has been delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff except in national interest, security and emergency arising out of inaction and default. In the present MPT Act, 1963, prior approval of the Central government is required in 22 cases.
[f] The Board is empowered to make its own Master Plan in respect of the area within the port limits with reference to pipelines, telephones, communication towers, electricity supply or transmission equipment. The Board is also empowered to lease land for port-related use for up to 40 years and for any purpose other than the purposes specified in Section 22 for up to 20 years, beyond which the approval of the Central government is required.
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