The Hindu Business Line : Member protests at Shipping Board being not consulted

Dr M.K. Pandhe, Secretary General, CITU, and Member, National Shipping Board (NSB), has criticised the Shipping Ministry for not consulting NSB, a statutory body under the Merchant Shipping Act, prior to taking decision on recruitment of foreign officers on board Indian-flag vessels.

"It is a clear example of the recent trend of the Ministry either to bypass NSB or not to pay attention to the recommendations of this statutory advisory body," Dr Pandhe has observed in his letter to Mr T.R. Baalu, Union Minister for Shipping & Transport.

The letter has urged the Minister not to rush in the matter of implementation of the decision; instead, his Ministry should take up with the Finance Ministry the issue of discrimination prevailing in regard to income-tax payments by Indian officers working in foreign flag-vessels and those in Indian-flag vessels.

While the officers serving the foreign-flag are exempted from the payment of any income-tax, the same benefit is not available to those working on board Indian vessels. Such a discrimination must go; otherwise, the shortage of officers in Indian vessels will never end.

Shortage issue

Holding the Union Government's wrong policies responsible for the present shortage of officers in Indian vessels, Dr Pandhe has pointed out that the shortage issue has been raised by NSB with the Government on several occasions but with no positive outcome so far.

The Shipping Ministry is not seriously taking up the matter with the Finance Ministry, with the result the exodus of Indian officers continues. "The recruitment of foreign officers will not solve the problem," Dr Pandhe has observed.

Talking to Business Line over phone from Bangalore, Dr Pandhe doubted if uniform income-tax rates for officers serving both Indian and foreign flag vessels would address the shortage problem properly as the Government might not like to displease the foreign ship-owners.

The share of Indian shipping in the country's sea-borne trade was steadily declining, from around 20 per cent a few years ago to present 13 per cent as compared to the stipulation of 40 per cent share for national bottoms as per the UN Code of Conduct, he added.

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