TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), in a letter to Panjim MLA and Economic Development Corporation (EDC) chairman Sidharth Kunkolienkar has asked him to see if the EDC can take over the loans of the barge and truck owners and free them from the bank loans.
The letter by the GCCI’s logistics committee says that the EDC can recover the money by installments when mining starts and hold barges and trucks as collateral for the amounts.
There are about 300 barges and 12,000 trucks engaged in ore transportation and the total bank loan on them is approximately Rs 680 crore, including Rs 250 crore on barges.
The chamber has also asked the Centre to waive off the export duty on Goan ore of below 58 FE content from 30% to 0% so that mining activity can start immediately.
Bringing to his notice the issue of the mounting liabilities of barge owners, mining machinery owners and truck owners, owing to the closure of mining since September 2012, the letter says that their plight is extremely desperate due to the long “absence of any income, which has driven them to hopeless bankruptcy”.
According to the letter, barge and truck owners are not in a position to even pay the one time settlement amount and this is why only a few barge owners have availed of the scheme
“Meanwhile barges are corroding progressively as they are being parked in semi-saline water without any productive activity for so long. Though individually owned, the barges and trucks when allowed to corrode continually constitute a national waste,” the letter says, requesting the MLA who has been recently appointed as the EDC chief to explore what the corporation can do to redress the situation and save the industry.
