India needs Rs.500 billion ($11 billion) to fund the development of 12 major ports by 2012 and the government is mulling a cess on cargo movement, a Planning Commission official said Friday.

"There is a proposal that some cess should be levied on cargo to meet the cost of common infrastructure at ports, like capital dredging," the official said, briefing reporters on decisions taken at Thursday's meeting of the committee on infrastructure of ports chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The cess is likely to be very small -- in the range of Rs.200 a container, said Gajendra Haldea, advisor to the Planning Commission's deputy chairman. He noted that no final decision had been taken on the proposed levy.

The committee also plans to constitute an inter-ministerial group to frame a roadmap for raising resources for developing ports.

Meanwhile, the shipping ministry would issue a perspective plan on developing ports by August 2005, Haldea said, pointing out that the development projects would be executed through a public-private partnership.

While the government would extend budgetary support for common infrastructure work like dredging, the private sector would be allowed to build and operate berths by availing long-term soft loans from a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to be floated soon.

Already, there are public-private partnerships to the tune of Rs.90 billion in the port sector -- Ennore Port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Chennai Port Trust being some examples.

Haldea said the committee had decided to enlist the services of international experts to prepare a 20-year plan for each port.

"We will appoint an expert by July 2005, who will submit the report by February 2006," he said.

--Indo-Asian News Service