JN Port hit by huge backlog of import containers

Jawaharlal Nehru Port, which handles about 60 per cent of the container traffic in India, is hit by congestion, with the backlog of import containers, destined for Inland Container Depots (ICD), touching 6,000, against a capacity of 2,500.

This is attributed to the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) not providing adequate container trains. Container trains, each of which carry 90 twenty foot boxes, are used to evacuate cargo from the port as well as transport export cargo to it.

According to port officials, the average number of trains per day at the port between June 4 and June 22 was 16, against a requirement of 20 to 22.

Maya Sinha S Sinha, deputy chairperson, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) said, “We have requested CONCOR brass to intervene in the matter and allow private rail operators to share the load. CONCOR has assured us that it will allot more trains to ease the congestion. There is a backlog of 5,500 ICD bound containers.”

“This congestion will take a toll on export shipments as the import boxes contain raw materials for manufacturing. Since JN Port is the largest container port and has faced congestion since 2002, the infrastructure committee under the prime minister should intervene,” said the secretary general of Western India Shippers’ Association, S R L Narasimhan.

When contacted, Mukul Jain, chief manager (Dronagiri Rail Terminal-CFS) of CONCOR, told Business Standard, “The current backlog at JN Port is due to a temporary delay in supply trains caused by the Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan earlier this month. Several tracks were uprooted during the agitation. We expect to bring down the backlog at JN Port by July 10.”

An industry expert said CONCOR would need an additional 30 rakes to clear the backlog.

“During the agitation in Rajasthan, it provided only 7.3 trains. Moreover, CONCOR was supposed to come out with a contingency plan before the monsoon set in. That did not happen,” he said.

However, CONCOR’s Jain refutes this claim. “JN Port is handling around 39,000 twenty foot containers in a month. Given that a single train carries 90 containers, it needs 433 trains in a month. Against that, we are providing 438 trains a month.”

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SEZs not a land-grab game, says Dhoot

Kolkata, June 30; Special economic zones (SEZs) are not a land-grabbing game, as the cost of land in any industrial project is only 10 per cent, and bulk of the expenditure is incurred on plant towards machinery and human capital.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the 106th annual general meeting of Merchants Chamber of Commerce here on Saturday, Mr Venugopal N.Dhoot, President of Assocham and Chairman of the Videocon Group, said the displaced farmers need to be convinced of the beneficial fallouts of the SEZ project.

He said they should be assured of additional compensation by way of jobs to at least one able member of the family.

Quoting from a recent Assocham study, Mr Dhoot said the business confidence among investors in West Bengal was now at a new high, up by 30 per cent. Suggesting that infrastructure in Bengal was now good, he described his recent talks with the Chief Minister in Siliguri as fruitful.

Commenting on the issue of SEZs in his presidential address, the outgoing President of MCC, Mr Santosh Saraf, said farmers are concerned that they will lose their means of livelihood and that compensation by the Government will be poor. West Bengal, he said, was also facing the problem of land scarcity. “Besides adequate compensation, a scheme of rehabilitation and employment for the land losers should be provided.”

Quoting a recent Goldman Sachs report, Mr Saraf said labour was nearly four times more productive in industry and six times more productive in the service sectors. “As such, any fear of loss of livelihood by the land-losers is totally misplaced.”

Farm output He said farm output can be raised easily through larger investments in agriculture to improve the various key essential elements such as irrigation, fertiliser, pesticides, storage and cold chains besides the technological inputs.

Describing the West Bengal Land Reforms Act and the Urban Land Ceiling Act as a major drag on production, he said the latter has already been abolished by the Union Government and many other States.

The West Bengal Land Reforms Act 2005, according to him, does not allow private investment in cash crops, contract farming etc, “which could provide a big

boost to employment and income generation.”

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India, EU start talks on FTA

As part of its policy to push for Free Trade Agreements with major trading partners, India has formally launched negotiations with the European Union for an ambitious and comprehensive FTA aimed at removing barriers across all sectors including investment and services.

The talks are being held in Brussels between high-level delegations from India and EU, led by Commerce Secretary G K Pillai and Director General of European Commission Davis O’Sullivan.

“EU and India expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers in goods, services and investment across all sectors of the economy. Both parties believe a comprehensive and ambitious agreement… would open new markets and expand opportunities for EU and Indian businesses,” an India-EU joint statement said.

It said the FTA would be consistent with WTO rules which say that regional preferential agreements need to cover substantial trade.

Sources said at the initial stage of talks both sides would exchange their wish-lists, broadly listing the areas they would like the agreement to cover. The actual list of items on which duties would be reduced to zero would be exchanged in October

With WTO process stalled, India is following example of world’s major economies like the US and EU by seeking trade expansion through the FTAs.

In the joint statement, the two sides reiterated their belief in the primacy of multilateral trading system and reaffirmed commitment to Doha Round round of negotiations. PTI[ FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2007 05:00:42 PM]

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US scraps duty-free regime for Indian gold jewellery and brass lamps

New Delhi/ Mumbai, June 29; The US has terminated the duty-free tariff regime for India’s exports of gold jewellery and brass lamps. The US President, Mr George Bush, issued a proclamation on Friday ending the ‘generalised system of preference’ (GSP) – a tariff regime that allows the US Government to extend preferential tariff arrangements for select countries, according to reports from Washington.

Consequently, these exports would attract import tariff applicable for exports from other countries engaged in the same trade.

Duty-free imports into the US under the GSP accounted for $32.6 billion worth of goods from developing countries in 2006, according to the reports.

India shipped gold jewellery worth $1.6 billion and $20 million worth of brass lamps under the GSP programme in the first 10 months of 2006, the US Trade Representative stated when initiating the review last year.

Along with India, Brazil and some other developing countries have also been targeted under a programme revamped late last year by the US Congress.

On paper, the reason for such termination could be that such duty-free access is no longer required for these products as the countries in question have reached a specified threshold level from where they could compete without the aid of concessional tariff.

A Bill approved by Congress in December last stipulated new guidelines for determining whether a particular product is eligible for duty-free treatment under the GSP programme.

But trade policy analysts here attribute the US decision to terminate GSP benefits for particular products of India and Brazil to their joint stand against the continued heavy farm subsidy payout by the US and their refusal to cut tariffs on industrial goods as demanded by developed countries during the recent G4 trade talks held in Germany.

Indian jewellery exports will now attract 6.5 per cent duty in the US.

Out of the total jewellery purchased by US from various countries, Indian jewellery accounts for 33.2 per cent, according to GJEPC News, published on the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (Council) Web site.

The effect of this could be that Indian jewellery may lose some business to China, said Mr Vasant Mehta, Vice-Chairman of the council.

However, the extent of the actual effect will only realised by the end of the year, he added.

With the applicability of import duty, Indian jewellery now comes on par with and will compete against products from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, as these nations do not enjoy duty-free imports either.

Representatives of the export community do not see the levy of 6.5 per cent as a serious threat to the business.

If the burden is evenly shared between the Indian supplier, US importer and the end-consumer, then the real impact is negligible, according to manufacturers.

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