15 January 2016

Ship building gets 'infrastructure' status

In its bid to give push to the ship building and ship breaking under the 'Make in India' scheme, government has granted 'infrastructure' status to the industry.

This will enable the shipyards and domestic manufacturers to get long term loans for 20-25 years and access overseas loans too.T he industry's demand for infrastructure tag had been pending for over a decade. "This is a path breaking decision and will go a long way to boost ship building here and the cost disadvantage for Indian players will be neutralized," said a shipping ministry official.

Though the proposal was brought before the Cabinet last month along with the proposal of providing Rs 4,000 crore subsidy spread over 10 years to spur ship building industry, the issue of granting infrastructure status to the sector was referred to finance ministry.

An official said that apart from increasing India's share in the global ship building sector, this decision will help create more jobs and boost ancillary industry.

The decision comes within a month after the government had declared financial assistance to domestic shipyards for any vessel built by them irrespective of size for domestic sale or export purpose.

Source: The Times of India. 15 January 2016

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