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Raja Simhan T.E.

Chennai , July 27

THE Centre has allowed the Tariff Authority of Major Ports (TAMP) to entertain representations from various chambers and port user associations on tariff and service-related issues.

An order to this effect was issued on Monday. The TAMP, which fixes tariffs at all major ports in the country, will issue notices calling for a hearing pertaining to issues at the Chennai container terminal, said an industry source.

The hearing would look into the penal charges collected by CCTL while its terminal faced labour unrest recently, the source added.

A policy directive by Ministry of Shipping to the TAMP in September 2003 restrained the authority from entertaining representations made by individual parties.

However, the Chennai port users said that neither the chambers of commerce nor the user associations could be brought under the bracket of individual parties so long as the representations from these bodies are of general issues and not specified to a particular transaction.

The container terminal run by CCTL, a special purpose vehicle set up by P&O Ports (Australia) Ltd, failed in handling the volumes out of Chennai since the beginning of this year due to internal labour issue and the trade suffered immense losses due to the poor performance of the terminal operator, the port users said in a letter to the Joint Secretary (Ports), Ministry of Shipping.

They also made a representation to the TAMP to restrain CCTL from collecting port storage charges, as the private operator failed to render service against the payments collected by it.

Due to the strike in the terminal - from May 23 to June 3 - importers were unable to clear containers.

"CCTL cannot and should not be allowed to penalise the trade members while they are the cause of the import containers not being cleared. CCTL has also failed to achieve its own performance levels they had put forth before the TAMP while seeking a revision subsequent to the Government enhancing their tariff by 17 per cent," the letter said.

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