Ship repair industry has Rs 2,700-crore potential: Pon Radhakrishnan

New Delhi: The ship repair industry in India has a potential of about Rs 2,700 crore but the turnover has declined on account of various problems, including lack of affordable financing, Parliament was informed on April 23. Steps are being taken to promote the industry, Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

"The ship repair industry has a sizeable potential of about Rs 2,700 crore in India. However, India's ship repair turnover has fallen short of the potential," said Radhakrishnan. He added that the problems faced by the industry include lack of cheap and long term financing as it does not enjoy infrastructure status, higher repair costs for domestic vessels due to prevailing tax regime and complex custom bonding processes leading to time delays and cost overruns.

Enunciating steps to promote the industry, he said the "government has dispensed with the requirement of registration of ship repair units with Director General (Shipping) in December 2014 to promote ease of business." Also, the government has given service tax exemption for repair of foreign going vessels by Indian ship-yards to reduce costs of ship repair units, said Radhakrishnan.