Potential of Cruise Industry
Potential of Cruise Industry
The Government has taken steps to incentivise and promote cruise industry for its exponential growthas detailed below:
(i) For berthing, cruise vessel is given priority over cargo vessel.
(ii) Rationalised cruise tariff has been introduced.
(iii) Ousting charges have been removed to attract cruise vessels.
(iv) E-Visa and on-arrival visa facilities have been extended.
(v) Single e-Landing Card has been introduced which is valid for all ports in cruise itinerary.
(vi) Cabotage has been waived for foreign cruise vessels. This relaxation allows foreign cruise ship to transport Indian nationals from one Indian Port to another Indian Port during its domestic leg.
(vii) In order to promote tourism, conditional IGST exemption has been approved for foreign going vessel when it converts to coastal run, subject to its reconversion to foreign going vessel within six months.
(viii) During Global Maritime India Summit, October, 2023 sessions on ‘Embark on a voyage to attract 50 million Cruise Passengers in India by 2047’ and a ‘Roundtable with Cruise lines’ were organized with participation of stakeholders.
(ix) Up-gradation and modernization of Cruise Terminals at New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Mormugao and Visakhapatnam have been completed.
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been issued by the Government which is followed by the personnel from the offices of Customs, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Immigration and Port Health organization (PHO). The role of State Government has also been given in the SOP. The Cruise Port Operation is multi-faceted and therefore, many aspects are involved in the entire process. The SOP indicate the role of different authorities on receipt of notification from steamer agents, as detailed below:
This information was given by the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today.
- Port charges are recovered @ $0.085/GRT (fixed rate) and a nominal passenger head tax of $ 6 for first 12 hours of stay at berth.
- Cruise ships are provided discounts ranging from 10% to 30% based on volume of their calls.