J N Port Authority, Gateway Terminals sign pact to end rate dispute.

State-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA) and Gateway Terminals India Pvt Ltd. (GTI) have signed a settlement agreement on 11 March to end a decade oldtariff dispute mediated by the newly formed Conciliation and Settlement Committee (CSC).
The Conciliation and Settlement Committee (CSC) is an alternate dispute resolution mechanism set up by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways to mediate and settle contractual disputes between the public-private-partnership (PPP) operators, contractors, consultants, service providers and the State-owned major ports.
GTI is 74 per cent owned by A P M Terminals Management B V, the container port operating unit of Danish shipping and transport giant A P Moller-Maersk A/S. Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor) holds the balance 26 per cent stake in the terminal, one of the five operating at J N Port, India’s busiest State-owned container port located near Mumbai. GTI started operations in 2006 on a 30-year contract.
After the erstwhile rate regulator cut its tariffs by 44.28 per cent in February 2012, GTI secured a stay from the Mumbai High Court that allowed it to levy rates which prevailed prior to the reduction till the case is decided. The petition is yet to be settled.
GTI was governed by the rate norms of 2005 which ended in 2010. The rate guidelines for terminals operating under the 2005 regime was revised by the Ministry in 2019 after removing many of the flaws that had resulted in litigations.
The CSC recommended that the parties to the dispute could follow the principles of the 2019 rate norms on distribution of surplus earned, to reach a settlement.
HBL