News: The Lok Sabha cleared the ‘Merchant Shipping Bill, 2025’, aimed at streamlining maritime governance with a modern and internationally compliant approach.
About Merchant Shipping Bill, 2025
- It is a progressive, future-ready legislation that replaces the outdated Merchant Shipping Act of 1958.
- The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 had become bulky, fragmented, and outdated with 561 sections, failing to address contemporary maritime challenges or fully implement India’s obligations under several key International Maritime Organization (IMO) conventions.
- Aim: The Bill is aimed at streamlining maritime governance with a modern and internationally compliant approach.
- Key Provisions
- Mandatory registration: As per the Bill, all vessels, regardless of propulsion method or tonnage, must be registered, including new provisions for temporary registration of vessels designated for recycling.
- The existing Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 stipulates that only a ship that is wholly owned by an Indian citizen, company or society can be registered under the Indian flag.
- Ownership and registration of chartered foreign vessels: Indian entities can now charter foreign vessels and register them as Indian vessels under specific conditions.
- The Bill also allows temporary registration of vessels for recycling of ships in India to boost the ship recycling business.
- Relaxed ownership criteria: It allows partial ownership by Indian citizens, companies registered in India, cooperative societies, and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs). This opens the sector to wider domestic and global investment.
- Welfare of seafarers: The Bill expands welfare and protection provisions to all Indian seafarers, whether on Indian or foreign-flagged vessels.
- Seafarers gain better access to social security and improved working conditions.
- Pollution control & environmental protection: It fully incorporates the MARPOL and Wreck Removal Conventions, making it mandatory for all vessels to possess pollution prevention certification, regardless of tonnage.
- Institutional and regulatory changes: The Director-General of Shipping is redesignated as the Director-General of Marine Administration, with expanded powers to regulate maritime education, training, and security.
- Stricter penalties: It increases fines and penalties for offences like endangering life, concealment of vessel nationality, and environmental violations, to ensure compliance and deterrence.
- Mandatory registration: As per the Bill, all vessels, regardless of propulsion method or tonnage, must be registered, including new provisions for temporary registration of vessels designated for recycling.
