Sarbananda Sonowal interview: ‘Laws are being tweaked to boost ease of doing biz’

Key bills awaiting Parliament's approval aim to revamp India's shipping sector, enhancing business ease, job creation, and economic growth.

Key bills that are awaiting Parliament’s sanction will change the face of the shipping and ports sector in the country, enhancing the ease of doing business as well as giving impetus to jobs and the economy, says Union minister for ports, shipping and waterways Sarbanand Sonowal.

Union minister Sarbanand Sonowal. (PTI)

In an interview with HT, Sonowal speaks about the new bills, the changes that have taken place in the shipping sector in the last decade and how the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government’s focus on the north-eastern region has resulted in a transformation on the ground in sectors such as health, infrastructure and tourism. Edited excerpts:

There are four bills piloted by your ministry that are awaiting passage in Parliament. How will the legislation impact the sector?

Since Independence, the Indian legal system had been clogged with thousands of obsolete, colonial laws, which created confusion, prolonged legal tussles and eroded our nation’s credibility and trust in the fast-changing global scenario. This led to decades of wasted opportunities and avenues, abysmally slow growth and immense poverty and misery for our people. Through Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visionary initiative of ‘Reform to Transform’, this government has repealed more than 1,500 old and redundant laws since 2014.

The objective is to streamline our legal system for ease of understanding, doing business and for effective governance by repealing and replacing old laws with updated ones in line with global best practices. The Bills of Lading Act, 1856 is being repealed and replaced with the Bills of Lading Bill, 2024 and the India Carriage of Goods Act, 1925 is being repealed and replaced by the Carriage of Goods Bill, 2024. Since the subject matter of the Acts is still relevant for maritime trade, the laws are being retained by way of the updated Bills. A new clause empowering the central government to issue directions for carrying out any or all provisions of the Acts has been included.

What will be the impact of these bills?

For holistic growth of coastal shipping, various initiatives have been taken during the past decade, which has led to 133% growth in coastal cargo movement. However, till today there was no separate legislation to exclusively focus on the overall development, growth and promotion of coasting trade. Although we have a long 7,500km coastline, our modal share of coastal shipping of about 6% is still meagre compared to other maritime nations. The share of coastal shipping in Japan and the EU is roughly 5-6 times higher. The low modal share of coastal shipping has significant implications on increased congestion and pollution levels on key land-based trade routes and high logistics costs.

How will it enhance investment and jobs in this sector?

The Bill creates avenues for integration of coastal shipping with inland waterways. It promotes shipbuilding in India and employment of Indian seafarers by enabling imposition of different licence conditions for coastal trade. It enables concerted regulation of trade activities, specially by foreign flag vessels in India’s coastal waters (including India’s EEZs) to verify their identity, their scope of work and other factors that may affect India’s safety, security, environment and other coastal shipping -related interests.

The opposition has objected to provisions of the merchant shipping bill introduced in Parliament?

The Bill aims at comprehensively implementing India’s obligations under various international conventions related to the shipping and maritime sector. The provisions of the Bill are aimed at encouraging ease of doing business, increase of Indian tonnage, welfare of Indian seafarers working on board Indian as well as foreign flag vessels, better response to marine incidents and better safety as well security-related preparedness for vessels and port facilities.

The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 (which it will replace) was enacted to foster the development and ensure efficient maintenance of an Indian mercantile marine ecosystem in a manner best suited to serve the national interests and, for that purpose, to establish a National Shipping Board and a Shipping Development Fund, and to provide for the registration of Indian ships and attendant obligations. Globally, the merchant shipping industry has undergone various changes in recent years and to meet the new challenges and promote ease of doing business, reforms were necessitated in the Act.

The Sagarmala Programme was intended to enhance the performance of the logistics sector. Are the targets envisaged being met?

Of course, it is under implementation and so far, more than 220 projects worth ₹2.2 lakh crore have already been completed. Because of the programme, we have seen changes in the port sector; port-led connectivity, industrial development and coastal community like development of inland waterways and coastal shipping... these are key to our capacity enhancement strategy. Earlier, during the Congress regime, the sector was not being focused on but now the World Bank logistics performance index report reveals how Indian ports are performing better than the best. Nine of our ports are among the 100 best ports and Visakhapatnam is among the top 20.

India is building a transhipment port with a total estimated cost of ₹44,000 crore at Galathea Bay, Great Nicobar Island. There were concerns about the impact it will have on the environment and ecology; have those been addressed?

I have personally been to that location and interacted with local people. Everyone has expressed their satisfaction after learning that this kind of port is going to be developed there. They’re requesting us to immediately start it...This is the local people’s expectation. The work is being done in convergence with other ministries, for example, there is a township that is going to be built, so the urban development ministry will be involved. The civil aviation ministry will be involved because of the airport there.

In your home state of Assam, the National Register for Citizens became a controversial issue, and your party frequently raises the issue of illegal immigrants. What is being done by the government to check illegal migration.

To tackle the illegal migrant issue, there is a law, what is called the Foreigners Act, 1946 and also Rule 1948 that is already there... after the repeal of the IMDT Act, there is a uniform law for the whole of the country. When the IMDT 1983 was in place, it was difficult to detect illegal immigrants because the onus of proof was on the complainant, not the suspect. Now, after the repeal of the controversial Act, the onus has shifted to the suspect.

Border sealing is a priority and that has been done along the 272km border, most of which was riverine. Technology has been utilised, so that even underwater, no suspected foreigners can move. Other measures such as constructing a wall as part of the requirements of a smart fence has been done in the Barak Valley.

Earlier, because of porous border fencing, illegal migrants could come and go, but now with this provision and the BJP government’s strong will this problem is being sorted out.

In 2014 the PM had spoken about the Act East policy to empower the North Eastern region. Has there been any impact on the ground.

There has been a revolutionary impact. The transformation is very visible. If you compare it with the UPA time, the region was totally backward in terms of connectivity, infrastructure, growth, agriculture, medical services...the PM from day one, made untiring efforts, encouraging all ministers to go there. He himself has visited more than 70 times. Ministers and senior officials have been asked to have detailed interactions and get projects implemented on the ground. Now, there are improvements in all sectors. Peace and tranquillity was not there during the UPA time, but now the North East is a preferred destination for domestic and foreign tourists.