The Hindu Business Line : Ministry says no to employing foreign crew aboard Indian vessels

In a setback to the Indian shipping industry, the Ministry of Shipping has spiked a proposal made by the Directorate-General of Shipping to allow shipping companies to sail with foreign crew on board.

After intense persuasion by the shipping industry, the D-G-Shipping in April had taken an in-principle decision to allow shipping companies to employ foreign officers after maintaining the minimum manning requirement for Indian officers. The approval was to be given on a ship-to-ship basis. Subsequently, the D-G-Shipping sent the proposal to the Ministry of Shipping, which was to issue the necessary notification. The cardinal objective was to enable the domestic shipping industry to tide over the present shortage of experienced manpower.

But, in an unexpected development, the Shipping Minister, Mr. T.R. Baalu, has informed shipping companies that his Ministry was not in favour of lifting the ban on employment of foreign officers on board Indian vessels, authoritative sources told Business Line.

Hike pay

According to the sources, the Minister had, instead, asked shipping companies to explore the possibility of increasing the remuneration for Indian officers to stem their flight to foreign-flagged vessels. It was pointed out that one of the reasons for the shortage was the predilection of Indian officers for joining foreign-flagged vessels due to heftier pay packages.

Representatives of the industry, however, tried to explain that the difference in pay packages for marine officers existed because of the difference in tax structure between India and other maritime nations.

The Indian shipping industry has been seeking the lifting of this ban for long. "When aviation operators are allowed to employ foreign pilots, why cannot Indian ships employ experienced foreign hands," an industry source pointed out.

`Lift ban'

According to the sources, there was even pressure from the PSU oil companies to allow Indian ships to employ foreign personnel. The oil companies have noted that many of the vessels that bring in their crude did not have adequate experienced hands on board. As this posed a threat to the safety of their oil parcels, the refiners wanted the Shipping Ministry to lift the ban on employment of foreign crew to "meet the experience matrix" of the crew on board the vessels nominated by them.

Indians most competent

The Indian shipping industry at present faces a shortage of between 500 and 700 experienced officers. "Feedback from different parts of the world suggests that Indians are amongst the most competent officers in the industry and more than 3,000 Indian officers are employed on foreign-flagged vessels," an official of the DG-Shipping pointed out.

The Ministry, cottoning on to the emerging shortage in supply of officers vis-à-vis the rise in demand, has initiated a string of measures to strengthen maritime education and training. In a significant decision, the Government has decided to develop the Indian institutes of maritime studies into a world-class Indian Maritime University, for which an amount of Rs 200 crore was allocated in the last Budget.

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