Reports indicate Irregularities in shore handling ops
The Port Chairman Committee that recently met to examine among other things — the representation made by BJP MP Mansukh Vasava to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh drawing his attention to large-scale irregularities in shore handling operations in major ports seems to have circuitously accepted the veracity of the points raised in the said representation.
The report of the Committee that met on July 3 and 4 has recommended “fixation of normative tariffs for stevedores and shore handling agents as required under the provisions of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963.” The Committee also “favours the statutory solution of getting TAMP (Tariff Authority for Major Ports) to notify normative tariffs that could act as a ceiling rate within which competition can be brought in among the different agents as a more sustainable solution.”
Though the Committee is “unable to agree with the suggestion that ports must appoint handling agents by tender-cum-auction with the bidding parameter being royalty/revenue share” the recommendations for a TAMP approved ceiling rate for the handling agents “indirectly accepts the fact that the cargo handling operations had been shrouded by large-scale irregularities” sources in Kolkata Port Trust said.
The Pioneer had been running reports on how the Government had been deprived of thousands of crores in revenue from shore handling operations of cargo by the so-called handling agents in utter violation of the MPT Act. These stories were based among other sources the stated representation of Vasava to the then Prime Minister.
This newspaper also showed how a Parliamentary Committee headed by Sitaram Yechury studied various aspects of the Port related issues and referred to irregularities in the cargo handling system by shore handling agents at 12 major ports.
The Port Chairmen Committee report in recommending TAMP-approved ceiling rates for the handling agents also proves that the fact that “thus far rates charged by such agents had not been approved by the TAMP which is a mandatory as per the Act,” said a KoPT official requesting anonimity.
In fact, the Committee itself accepts in para 2.3 of the report that “the rates have not been fixed by the TAMP for those operations so far.”
Official requesting anonimity also wondered whether the Committee of the Chairman could accept large-scale scams taking place in their own Port areas adding “at least recommendations for a TAMP approved ceiling rate is one step towards cleansing of the scam-tainted system.”
The official also wondered as to “why the Committee tends to focus more on stevedoring which has by-far been on legal lines while making occasional reference to the shore handling operations where the real scam has been taking place for the past 40 years or so.”
The alleged scams had not only deprived the Government of huge amount of revenue but also significantly contributed to inflationary trends as the arbitrary rates charged by the shore handling agents added up to the cost of the cargo — for instance, steel, cycles, utensils, coal for power, cement, manganese etc — that ultimately went to the consumers sources said.
There has been reports of scams worth thousands of crores taking place in the 12 major ports where the private handling agents had set up their monopoly business in absence of tendering or auctioning out of the shore-handling operations.