IBA panel to examine extension of credit facility to shipping companies
13 Jul 2009
The Indian Bank Association, on the advice of the finance ministry, has constituted a working group to examine the issue of extension of credit facilities to shipping companies for purchase of ships.
The Indian National Shipowners' Association, which represents Indian shipping companies that hold 90 per cent of the Indian tonnage, has sought the creation of a Rs10,000 crore corpus for providing credit facilities to Indian shipping companies for acquisition of ships, minister of shipping G K Vasan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
This representation has come in the wake of the recent global economic slow down that has resulted in depressed earnings for shipping companies and credit crunch, he said.
The government, he added, has not provided any soft loan to the shipping companies in the last three years and through the current year.
The government has also prepared plans to upgrade the infrastructure of ports in the country as per international standards, he said, adding, a National Maritime Development Programme (NMDP) has been set up with this objective.
He said the government has identified specific projects to be taken up for implementation up to 2011-12.
