The state government has introduced a steep increase in the anchorage fee for ships entering Kakinada and Rawa ports. While Kakinada Anchorage Port primarily handles rice exports, Rawa serves as a captive port for oil operations for companies like Reliance. Till now the government has been charging Rs 750 per day for both the Kakinada and the Rawa ports.
Infrastructure and investment principal secretary Sutirtha Bhattacharya recently issued orders increasing the fee to Rs 1,000 per day, a 30 per cent hike. The decision comes in the wake of increased cargo operations in Kakinada after the Centre permitted the export of rice. About 20 lakh tonnes of rice have been exported recently. “Each ship is anchored for a minimum of 15-20 days,” director of ports Muralidhar Reddy said. Some stay put for more than two months.
Maintaining that the cargo operations would not be hit, Mr Reddy said the government would also get revenue from overseas ships using the anchorage port for assembling floating rigs and maintenance for two to three months. The shipping agencies and exporters, however, cry foul over the government increasing all fares relating to the anchorage port. A few days ago, the department hiked the warehousing fee from Rs 88 per tonne to Rs 100.
Additionally, the stevedore license renewal was changed to every year in place of the current validity period of four years. The government fixing the anchorage fee based on the VPT also came as a surprise to the stakeholders. “As we don't have a regulatory authority for state ports, we adopted VPT rates,” I&I principal secretary told this newspaper. The shipping agencies, however, object to equating Kakinada port to VPT, which is a fully developed port with huge infrastructure. “The government is neglecting the anchorage port. Despite increasing its revenues, the government is not improving infrastructure or facilities,” Mr P.V.Rao of a shipping agency, pointed out.