Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday chaired an inter-ministerial meeting to address rising freight costs, shipping delays, container shortages, and congestion at ports.

Minister Goyal announced that the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has decided to allow empty containers to be stored for a period of 90 days in the yard at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) free of cost and has also slashed the loading and handling charges significantly.

Chairman, JNPT, Unmesh Sharad Wagh assured that steps have already been taken to eliminate any congestion and bottlenecks. To enhance export-related processes, traffic delays near and around JNPA will be minimised and simultaneous container scanning at JNPA will be implemented for faster clearances and reduced turnaround time.

Further, at the meeting, Chairman and CEO of the Railway Board, Satish Kumar, announced that the charge of Rs 3,000 that is being levied beyond 90 days, is now reduced to Rs 1,500. The storage and handling rates will be reduced for containers from Rs 9,000 to Rs 2,000 (for a 40 ft container) and from Rs 6,000 to Rs 1,000 (for a 20 ft container).

The Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) announced that it is chartering container ships to significantly increase the container capacities.

It was announced that on an immediate basis, capacity will be enhanced by 9,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). The SCI will also buy additional five container ships to further enhance cargo handling capacity.

The shipping lines assured that all charges like container transportation and lift on/lift off at yards would be embedded in the delivery order given to shippers.

At the meet, Secretary, Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Shipping, TK Ramachandran announced that the port capacities have already been enhanced by 2.3 million TEUs.

It was decided at the meeting that private container yards would have to mandatorily register themselves with GST authorities and that it would not accept any charges in cash in order to stop illegal profiteering arising out of shortage and delay.

Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra said that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will expedite custom clearances at the ports by simultaneously screening two twenty-foot containers.

The Civil Aviation Secretary also announced that all efforts will be taken to ensure faster movement of air cargo and reduce turnover time.

The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) also expressed satisfaction with the present availability of containers and expressed that the immediate steps being taken by the government would result in significantly easing the congestion, delay, and freight hike and would enhance the space availability on the outgoing container ships.