The Hindu Business Line : Welcome foreign hand at the wheel

Non-availability of suitable seafaring officers has become such a grave problem that it threatens to disrupt the movement of cargo as a result of long detention time of Indian vessels at ports. The permission to ship-owners to hire foreign nationals is thus welcome.

T. E. Raja Simhan

Foreign nationals are likely to come to the rescue of Indian ship-owners even as there is a shortage of qualified Indian seafarers to work on board Indian ships. The Directorate General of Shipping has given Indian ship-owners permission to hire foreign nationals to meet the shortage of qualified seafarers — over 1,000 officers, at present. The Indian Shipowners’ Association (INSA) has been seeking this consent for a long time.

Foreign nationals were serving on Indian ships in the 1970s. But this was stopped due to amendments in the ‘Continuous Discharge Certificate’ — seafarer’s identity document required to board a ship — rules in the 1980s.

“The DG Shipping is convinced that there is a serious shortage of qualified seafarers. This is proving to be detrimental to the growth of Indian (shipping) tonnage and adversely affecting the smooth operation of the Indian fleet,” says a Department circular.

Longer detention

It is learnt that of the total number of Indian officers, at 26,900, only 8,900 are employed on Indian flag vessels, while the remaining 18,000 in foreign flag vessels. Indian ship owners have been demanding recruitment of foreign nationals in both nautical and engineering disciplines. “This is a reasonable request and in the larger national interest,” the DG Shipping noted.

According to the DG Shipping, the Indian National Ship-owners’ Association (INSA) contended that despite all the steps taken to recruit and retain Indian seafarers, its members are unable to get qualified Indian seafarers on a regular basis to work on Indian vessels. This has adverse implications such as increased accidents / incidents and higher detention of vessels.

Indian ship-owners said they have to trade in the international arena, facing global competition, but do not have flexibility to recruit seafarers from other nations while foreign shipping companies can recruit manpower from India.

In its 2007 annual report, INSA said that Indian companies are affected by the drift of personnel from Indian ships to foreign ships because of a peculiar taxation problem of ‘discrimination’ faced by Indian seafarers working on board in Indian ships vis-À-vis their compatriots on foreign vessels.

The situation has become so grave it is threatening to disrupt the movement of cargo as a result of long detention of Indian vessels on account of non-availability of suitable officers.

Mr S. S. Kulkarni, Secretary, INSA, said although the circular is a welcome measure, it is restrictive in nature. Some of INSA’s suggestions were not reflected in the circular. For instance, the circular states that no more than two foreign national seafarers shall be engaged in a ship at a time, and the master must be of Indian nationality.

INSA had suggested that the foreign officer may be a third officer or second officer, or equivalent in the engineering ranks. He could even be an additional senior officer.

The DG Shipping has given an approved list of 12 countries — Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Malaysia, Romania, Russia, the UK and Ukraine — as sources for recruiting foreign nationals. However, INSA suggested the inclusion of nine more countries — Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines — from where possibilities of getting foreign officers are better.

DG Shipping approval

In addition to foreign nationals, INSA requested the DG Shipping to permit Indian nationals with ‘Certificates of Competence’ from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Philippines to sail on Indian vessels, he said. It is impractical to expect a foreign national to visit, Mumbai, and do a three-day course on Indian maritime legislation since the officer is likely to join the ship at some port abroad.

Further, as this officer cannot be the master or the second in command (chief officer of the ship), the knowledge of legislation or Indian Administration may not be too important, at least initially.

It should, in fact be the responsibility of the company to ensure that the foreign officer is familiarised with the maritime legislation of the flag state and the ISM requirements and documentation procedures of the company.

Considering that foreign flag vessels with foreign nationals are freely moving in and out of our ports and plying on our coasts, approval from Ministry of External Affairs/Ministry of Home Affairs should be insisted upon only if the vessel is likely to call at any Indian port.

If the vessel trades continuously abroad, there should be no need to seek such permission. Procedure for taking permission from both the ministries should be well-laid-out and be on a fast-track method, says Mr Kulkarni.