The Hindu Business Line : 2-tier fee structure for training in tonnage tax shipping cos

THE maritime regulator has adopted a two-tier training fee structure based on the Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) of qualifying ships to operationalise the provision for minimum training requirements for tonnage tax companies.

Accordingly, a trainee officer will have to pay the shipping company opting for the tonnage tax regime, a fee of Rs 10,000 for every month of training on a ship whose GRT is more than 500, subject to a maximum of Rs 2,00,000. In the case of qualifying ships whose GRT is less than or equal to 500, the training fee will be Rs 3,000 per month subject to a maximum of Rs 1,00,000, says a circular issued by the Director General of Shipping.

The administrative cost will be ten per cent of the total training fees, which shall be paid by the tonnage tax company and trainee officers in equal proportion.

As per the Government notification on minimum training commitments for tonnage tax companies, each qualifying ship will have to provide training to one officer for a complement of 10, based on Safe Manning Document. Such trainee officers will have to pay a fee prescribed by the D.G. Shipping.

The fees and administrative cost prescribed will have to be paid by the officer in advance for a period of six months to the Maritime Training Trust (MTT) set up by the tonnage tax companies. The fees paid by an officer shall be deposited in the corpus of MTT.

The fee collected will be refunded to the trainees by MTT, in case they work for such tonnage tax companies for a minimum period of 3 years. "This provision has been incorporated to mitigate the problem of shortage of officers availability to Indian flag vessels," says the maritime regulator.

Similarly, tonnage tax companies will have to pay a suitable stipend to be decided by MTT. Currently, the stipend payable to the trainee officers shall be a minimum Rs 5,000 per month though shipping companies will have the freedom to pay more, if they choose to do so.

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