Government exempts IFSC GIFT City units from licensing for chartering foreign vessels under Coastal Shipping Act, 2025
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has removed licensing for eligible IFSC GIFT City units chartering foreign vessels for EXIM and international trade operations.
AI generated- The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways exempted eligible IFSC units in GIFT City from the licensing requirement under Section 11 of the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 for chartering foreign vessels for EXIM and international trade operations.
- Section 11 of the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 is the licensing provision referred to in the exemption.
- Before the exemption, eligible IFSC units needed a licence from the Director General of Shipping for the covered vessel-chartering activity.
- The notification states that the prevailing cabotage regime and safeguards for coastal shipping remain unchanged.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has exempted eligible units in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City, Gandhinagar from the licensing requirement under Section 11 of the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025. The exemption applies to chartering foreign vessels for EXIM and international trade operations.
The notification is meant to simplify regulation for maritime leasing, ship financing, and ship-owning activity routed through GIFT City. The government says the change should help build India as a maritime services centre and attract global capital into maritime assets.
What changed now
UPSC may test how policy exemptions under the Coastal Shipping Act, 2025 interact with the International Financial Services Centre framework, maritime leasing, and the cabotage regime. A mains question may ask whether such reforms improve competitiveness without weakening safeguards in coastal shipping.
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