Age Norms of 25yrs for the vessel trading in India discussed /SPF/ DG Penalty on RPS in IMF Conference

International Maritime Federation (IMF) organised a conference on some burning issues of the shipping industry on May at Acres Club, Mumbai. This conference raised concern on DGS Orders on Vessels Age Norms and imposing a huge amount of penalty for errors in providing certificate data on DG portal. Also, Seafarers Provident fund (SPF) for seamen on foreign Flag Vessels discussed on this occasion. MTI representatives, and industry stalwarts attended the conference.

Mr Vivek Rastogi, Chairman, IMF welcomed all the esteemed guests and the conference began with the lighting of the lamp ceremony by the esteem guest Capt LK Panda, (Retired) Former Nautical Advisor to GOI, Capt Umesh Abhyankar- Joint President CEO – Adani Ports & Special Economic zone; Mr Vivek Rastogi chairman – IMF and Mrs Aishwarya  Pilankar – Vice Chairperson – IMF.

Capt Sudheer Subedar spoke about the age Norms of the vessel, he explicitly expressed that concerning the gaps in government-imposed norms of vessel age fixed for 25yrs. Capt Sudhir Subedar said that “we have neglected inland water transport and domestic shipping over the years compared to road and rail. I believe this Age Norm order for the vessels instead of synergising and helping the model shift of cargo, it will almost kill it. This order also has a problem of not having any lead time to go forward for the owners and operators to take stock of the situation.”

Capt Ramji S Krishnan, SLOAN Fellow, London Business School presented detailed data/survey reports, on Age Norms and said that “discrimination against older vessels is not only unjust but also unproductive. Vessel’s worth is not just measured in terms of age, but also in terms of performance, reliability, and safety record.”

Capt Venkat Iyer spoke about the concerns of Provident fund of the seafarers and said that federation like IMF must go the DG shipping and tell them what is to be done, how a system should be put in place to maintain the core objective of The Seamen’s Provident Fund Scheme so that more and more seafarers can be benefited with this.

“Here the major point is that RPSL agents here was made responsible for all the amounts due to the seafarer. It is good we are all seafarers. Our interest and our Social Security must be protected but it is owner who is earning from the services of the Seafarers and they should be made responsible more than the RPSL agent who collects only a small Commission,” he added.

Capt Rajkumar Sinha, former chairman of IMF requested the industry stalwart for putting up the RPSL and e-governance issues so that the IMF can get feedback and same can be put forward to the authority for betterment of the functioning of the industry. He has also raised his concern over DG Shipping portals which have not been functioning for quite some time which cause the suffering to the visitors.

“The other points which the RPSL faces is at times there are certain papers which probably is not so relevant just to send the gentleman or the Seafarers on board. We as on today one hand talk about increasing the number of seafarers on board and on the other hand make it so difficult for a small entrepreneur to come up achieving this goal,” Capt Sinha stated.

Ms Aishwarya Pilankar, Vice Chairperson, IMF represented the RPSL companies by presenting her concern over the e-Governance system and said that “a lot of hustles happening in the DG shipping portal sites itself where we are not able to upload things or fill the details in result of that we are getting penalised which is not a right way of running a system which deals with an industry covers 92 Percent of world trade and play a major role in Indian economy.”

“Representing the Maritime Union of India there are lot of issues we deal with in regards to the Seafarers and related issues in which one is dealing with the bad RPSL.” Capt Tushar Pradhan said.

“We have taken a lot of cases with the DG in this regard. As an industry, I think we should have to come together to find the way to block them out. It’s not an easy task, but we have to go by the right channels, we have to go to the government authorities to get things resolved and IMF may play an important role in this as an association. We wish them all the best for all their initiative for the wellbeing of the industry as well as the Seafarers.” Capt Pradhan added.

Mr Manoj Yadav, General Secretary, Forward Seamen’s Union of India raised the issues of the Seamen job after the notification to introduce age restriction norms for ships of different categories and said that “we are looking into the matter and our concern has been raised to the DG Shipping and to the ministry as well.”

Capt LK Panda represented DG Shipping where he served for good 25 to 26 years. He said that “notwithstanding the fact that I am also a seafarer and I am with you all in this journey for betterment of the seafarers. Right in the preamble of the Merchant Shipping Act. It is there that this is an act to foster the growth of every aspect of shipping. So, whether the end user complaints or not, it is for the administration to take care and make the system. But let us not forget the responsibilities also with the end user to keep on pointing.”

“DG shipping to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to weigh pros and con and should conduct more research to better understand the correlation between the age of ships and marine accidents.” He added.

Capt Nazir Upadhye concluded this seminar with vote of thanks and assured that IMF will keep organising such seaworthy discussion in future as well.

Marex Media