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Cabinet nod for new Ports Bill

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The Cabinet on Wednesday has approved the proposal of Ministry of Shipping to replace the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 by the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2016.
This will help major ports to perform with greater efficiency as they will get full autonomy in decision making.
“With a view to promote the expansion of port infrastructure and facilitate trade and commerce, the proposed Bill aims at decentralising decision making and to infuse professionalism in governance of ports,” a government statement said.
The new Major Ports Authority Bill, 2016 would help in faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders and better project execution capability, it said.
The Bill is aimed at reorienting the governance model in central ports to landlord port model in line with the successful global practice. This will also help in bringing transparency in operations of Major Ports.
The new Bill is compact in comparison with the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 as the number of sections has been reduced to 65 from 134.
The new Bill has proposed a simplified composition of the Board of Port Authority which will comprise 11 members from the present 17-19 members.
In other decisions, the Cabinet apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) for cooperation in the exchange and use of US Land Remote Sensing Satellite Data. The MoU was signed on July 9, in Bengaluru.
The Cabinet also approved the protocol amending the agreement between India and Tajikistan for avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income.
It has also approved proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare for Signing of an Agreement between India and Kyrgyzstan on cooperation in the field of agriculture and food related industry.
The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also given its ex-post facto approval to India’s approach to Climate Change Negotiations at the Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), held in Marrakesh, Morocco during November 7-18.
Business Standard New Delhi,15th December 2016

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