India: Taxes on ship building need to be reduced

The Indian Maritime Foundation (IMF) member Vice-Admiral (retd) Vinod Pasricha on Thursday stressed on the need to reduce taxes on the shipbuilding industry and build bigger ports as almost 90 to 94 per cent of all our trade comes in from the sea.  Addressing a news conference here, he added, "Indian warships are faring well in the international markets. In the last five years, the Indian shipyards have made impressive strides in building warships as well as commercial ships. There is a need for the government to make laws in such a way that the taxes for the shipbuilding industry are calculated in accordance to the gains that this sector is bringing into the country."
He also pointed out that even though the industry has been faring quite well, it still has a lot of scope for improvement and with proper guidance, can become one of the best in the world because of India's longest coastline. "We can be the best in the world. But we have to increase the speed of the building process. At times, it takes three to four years to build one ship. With a bit more guidance from the government, the condition can be improved manifolds," said Parischa.
Rajan Vir, Commodore, Indian Navy (Retd) and president of the IMF, also pointed to the booming shipbuilding industry and said there is a growing need to create awareness among citizens about this sector. "The 26/11 terror attacks revealed the vulnerability of the Indian coastal borders. We all know that there is a growing need for increasing security on that front. For this, we need better infrastructure to improve ports and build more ships," he said.
To raise awareness about this, managing directors of the four major ports of our country, the Mazagon Dock in Mumbai, the Cochin Shipyard in Kochi, the Garden Reach Shipbuilders in Kolkata and the Hindustan Shipyard in Vishakhapatnam, will participate in a seminar on the Indian shipbuilding industry, which will be organised by the IMF in Pune on July 22. "The aim of the seminar will be to enlighten people about the importance of this sector and also to discuss ways of improving it," said Pasricha.
The seminar will be held at the Southern Command auditorium and will try to highlight the scopes and capabilities of the shipyards and also talk about the challenges being faced by the industry.