(ii) for clause (i), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— '(@) "goods" means any property including live animals, containers, pallets or such other articles of transport or packaging supplied by the consignor, irrespective of whether such property is to be or is carried on or under the deck;'; (iii) in clause (j), for the words "road, rail", the words "road, air, rail" shall be substituted; (iv) for clauses (k) and (j, the following clauses shall be substituted, namely:— '(® "multimodal transportation" means carriage of goods, by at least two different modes of transport under a multimodal transport contract, from the place of acceptance of the goods in india to a place of delivery of the goods outside india;'; () "multimodal transport contract" means a contract under which a multimodal transport operator undertakes to perform or procure the performance of multimodal transportation against payment of freight; (la) "multimodal transport document" means a negotiable or nounegotiable document evidencing a multimodal transport contract and which can be replaced by electronic data interchange messages permitted by applicable law; (v) in clause (m), in sub-clause (ii), for the words "not as an agent either of the consignor or of the carrier", the words "not as an agent either of the consignor, or consignee or of the carrier" shall be substituted; (vi) after clause (q), the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:— '(r) "special drawing rights" means such units of accounts as are determined by the international monetary fund; (s) "taking charge" means that the goods have been handed over to and accepted for carriage by the multimodal transport operator;' 3 in section 4 of the principal act,—  amendment of section 4(i) in sub-section (3), for clause (a), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— "(a) (i) that the applicant is a company, firm or proprietary concern, engaged either in the business of shipping, or freight forwarding in india or abroad with a minimum annual turnover of fifty lakh rupees during the immediately preceding financial year or an average annual turnover of fifty lakh rupees during the preceding three financial years as certified by a chartered , accountant within the meaning of the chartered accountants 38 of 1949act, 1949; (ii) that if the applicant is a company, firm or proprietary concern other than a company, firm or proprietary concern, specified in sub-clause (i), the subscribed share capital of such company or the aggregate balance in the capital account of partners of the firm, or the capital of the proprietor is not less than fifty lakh rupees"; (i?) in sub-section (3), after the proviso, the following provisos shall be inserted, namely:— "provided further that any applicant who is not a resident of india and who is not engaged in the business of shipping shall not be granted registration unless he has established a place of business in india: provided also that in respect of any applicant who is not a resident of india, the turnover may be certified by any authority competent to certify the accounts of a company in that country"; (iii) for sub-sections (4) and (5), the following sub-sections shall be substituted, namely:— "(4) a certificate granted under sub-section (3) shall be valid for a period of three years and may be renewed from time to time for a further period of three years at a time (5) an application for renewal shall be made in such form as may be prescribed and shall be accompanied by such amount of fees as may be notified by the central government: provided that such fees shall not be less than rupees ten thousand and shall not exceed rupees twenty thousand (6) the competent authority shall renew the registration certificate granted under sub-section (3) if the applicant continues to fulfil the conditions as laid down at the time of registration" 4 in section 6 of the principal act, for sub-section (1), the following sub-section amendment of section 6 all be substituted, namely:— "(1) any person aggrieved by, refusal of the competent authority to grant or renew registration under section 4 or by cancellation of registration under section 5, may prefer an appeal to the central government within such period as may be prescribed" amendment of section 7 5 in section 7 of the principal act, in sub-section (/), the fotlowing proviso shall be nseried, namely:— "provided that the multimodal transport operator shall issue the multimodal transport document only after obtaining, and during the subsistence of a valid insurance cover" 6 in section 9 of the principal act,— amendment of section 9(i) for clause (a), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— "(a) the general nature of the goods, the leading marks necessary for identification of the goods, the character of the goods (including dangerous goods), the number of packages or units and the gross weight and quantity of the goods as declared by the consignor;"; (ii) for clause (4), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— "(h) the date or the period of delivery of the goods by the multimodal transport operator as expressly agreed upon between the consignor and the multimodal transport operator;"; (iit) for clause (x), the following clause shall be substituted, namely: "(k) freight payable by the consignor or the consignee, as the case may be, to be mentioned only if expressly agreed by both the consignor and the consignee;"; (iv) after clause (0), the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:— "provided that the absence of any of the particulars listed above shall not affect the legal character of the multimodal transport document" amendment of 7 in section 13 of the principal act, in sub-section (/), for the second proviso, the section 13 following proviso shall be substituted, namely:— "provided further that the multimodal transport operator shall not be liable for loss or damage arising out of delay in delivery including any consequential loss or damage arising from such delay unless the consignor had made a declaration of interest in timely delivery which has been accepted by the multimodal transport operator" amendment of 8 in section 14 of the principal act, in sub-section (/), for the explanation, the section 14 following explanation shall be substituted, namely:— "explanation—for the purpose of this sub-section, where a container, pallet or similar article is stuffed with more than one package or units, the packages or units enumerated in the multimodal transport document, as packed in such container, pallet or similar article of transport shall be deemed as packages or units" 9 in section 15 of the principal act, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:— amendment of section 15 "provided that the multimodal transport operator shall not be liable for any loss, damage or delay in delivery due to a cause for which the carrier is exempted from liability in accordance with the applicable law" 10 after section 20, the following section shall be inserted, namely:— insertion of new section 20a period of responsibility "20a the responsibility of the multimodal transport operator for the goods under this act shall cover the period from the time he has taken the goods in his charge to the time of their delivery" 11 in the indian carriage of goods by sea act, 1925, in schedule, in article i, for amendment of act 26 of 1925 clause (c), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:— '(c) "goods" includes any property including live animals as well as containers, pallets or similar articles of transport or packaging supplied by the consignor,  irrespective of whether such property is to be or is carried on or under deck;' statement of objects and reasonsmultimodal transportation of goods act, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as an act) was enacted to regulate the multimodal transportation of goods by law with a view to reducing and eliminating interruption in the continuous movement of goods from their origin to the ultimate destination as well as to reduce the costs and delays and thereby to improve the quality of transport services this act provides a legal regime to govern on a uniform basis, the liabilities and responsibilities of a multimodal transport operator who can provide services under a single document to shippers engaged in international trade 2 there are two basic international arrangements which are of significance in the area of multimodal transportation the united nations convention on international multimodal transport of goods, 1980 lays down the responsibilities and liabilities of multimodal transport operators at the international level, whereas the unctad/international chamber of commerce (icc) rules have gained universal acceptance in the international multimodal transportation of goods in order to bring the act in line with both the united nations convention and the unctad/icc rules and also to ensure its better acceptance on the basis of the experience gained so far during the implementation of the act, it is proposed to amend the act as follows:— (a) in section 2, it is proposed to substitute definitions of the expressions "carrier", "goods", "multimodal transportation", "multimodal contract" and to amend the definition of the expression "multimodal transport operations" it is further proposed to insert new definitions of multimodal transport document", "special drawing rights" and "taking charge" in this section; (b) to amend section 4 to make certain additional provision relating to registration of multimodal transportation it is thus proposed to provide that a firm or a proprietary concern can also be registered as a multimodal transport operator at present, only a company can be registered as a multimodal transport operator further, it is proposed that all foreign applicants other than the one engaged in the business of shipping must have a place of business in india and in case of foreign applicants, the turnover is to be certified by a competent authority of the foreign country to which the applicant belongs the period of the:validity and renewal of certificate of registration is being increased from one year to three years the fee for renewal is also proposed to be increased from rupees two thousand to a sum of money which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees but shall not exceed rupees twenty thousand a provision for renewal of registration has also been proposed in this section; (c) itis proposed to provide the right of appeal in section 6 to an aggrieved person against the refusal of the competent authority to register any person or to renew the certificate of registration; (d) it is proposed to amend section 7 to provide that a multimodal transport operator should possess a proper insurance cover before issuing a multimodal transport document this is necessary to protect the interest of shippers; (e) it is proposed to provide in section 9, which deals with contents of multimodal transport document, that particulars relating to the general nature of the goods mentioned in the document shall be the same as are furnished by consignor further, it is proposed that the date or period of delivery of the goods by the multimodal transport operator shall be as expressly agreed upon between the shippers and the multimodal transport operator it is further proposed that the freight payable shall be mentioned only if expressly agreed by both consignor and consignee lastly, it is proposed that the absence of any of the particulars mentioned in this section shall not affect the legal character of the document; (/) it is proposed to amend section 13 to provide that the multimodal transport operator shall be relieved from liability for any consequential loss or damage arising from delay in delivery of the consignment unless consignor has made a declaration of interest in timely delivery which is accepted by the multimodal transport operator; (g) 1t is proposed to provide in section 15 that a multimodal transport operator shall not be liable for any loss, damage or delay in delivery due to a cause for which the carrier is exempted from liability in accordance with the applicable law; (a) it is proposed to insert a new section 20a so as to define the period of responsibility of multimodal transport operator; and (i) it is proposed to amend the definition of the expression "goods" in the carriage of goods by sea act, 1925 on the lines of the definition contained in international instruments 3 the bill seeks to achieve the above objects new delhi; rajnath singh the 28th july, 2000 memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 3 of the bill empowers the central government to prescribe by rules the amount of fee which shall be paid along with an application for renewal of certificate of registration 2 clause 4 of the bill empowers the central government to prescribe by rules the period within which an appeal against order of refusal of the competent authority to grant or renew registration or cancellation thereof may be filed before the central government 3 the matters in respect of which rules may be made are matters of procedure and detail and it is not possible to incorporate the same in the bill the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character annexure extracts from the multimodal transportation of goops act, 1993 (28 of 1993)     definitions 2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires, - (a) "carrier" means a person who is engaged in the business of transporting for hire goods by road, rail, inland waterways or sea;      (i) "goods" includes-— (j) containers, pallets or similar articles of transport used to consolidate goods; and cd animals; (j) "mode of transport" means carriage of goods by road, rail, inland waterways or sea; (k) "multimodal transportation" means carriage of goods by two or more modes of transport from the place of acceptance of the goods in india to a place of delivery of the goods outside india; (j "multimodal transport contract" means a contract entered into by the consignor and the multimodal transport operator for multimodal transportation; (m) "multimodal transport operator" means any person who— (i) concludes a multimodal transport contract on his own behalf or throug another person acting on his behalf; (ii) acts as principal, and not as an agent either of the consignor or of the carrier participating in the multimodal transportation, and who assumes responsibility for the performance of the said contract; and (iii) is registered under sub-section (3) of section 4;      registration 4 (1)      for multimodal     transportation (3) on recepit of the application, the competent authority shall satisfy that the applicant fulfills the following conditions, namely:— (a) (i) that the applicant is a shipping company or a company engaged in the business of freight forwarding in india or abroad with a minimum annual turnover of fifty lakh rupees during the immediate preceding financial year or an average annual turnover of fifty lakh rupees during the preceding three financial years as certified by a chartered accountant within the meaning of the chartered accountants 38 of 1949act, 1949; (ii) that if the applicant is a company other than a company specified in subclause (i), the subscribed share capital of such company is not less than fifty lakh rupees; (b) that the applicant has offices or agents or representatives in not less than two other countries, and on being so satisfied, register the applicant as a multimodal transport operator and grant a certificate to it to carry on or commence the business of multimodal transportation: provided that the competent authority may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, refuse to grant registration if it is satisfied that the applicant does not fulfil the said conditions (4) a certificate granted under sub-section (3) shall be valid for a period of one year and may be renewed from time to time for a further period of one year at a time (5) an application for renewal shall be made in such form as may be prescribed and shall be accompanied by a fee of two thousand rupees      appeal 6 (/) any person aggrieved by an order made by the competent authority under section 5 may prefer an appeal to the central government within such period as may be prescribed      contents of multimodal 9 the multimodal transport document shall contain the following particulars, namely:— transport document (a) the general nature of the goods, the leading marks necessary for identification of the goods, the character of the goods (including dangerous goods), number of packages or units and the gross weight and quantity of the goods;      (h) the date or the period of delivery of the goods at the place of delivery;      (k) freight payable by the consignor or the consignee, as the case may be;       chapter iv | responsiblities and liabilities of the multimodal transport operatorbasis of 13 (j) the multimodal transport operator shall be liable for loss resulting from— (a) any loss of, or damage to, the consignment; (b) delay in delivery of the consignment and any consequential loss or damage | liability    ||--------------|| multimodal   || transport    || operator    |arising from such delay, where such loss, damage or delay in delivery took place while the consignment was in his charge: provided that the multimodal transport operator shall not be liable if he proves that no fault or neglect on his part or that of his servants or agents had caused or contributed to such loss, damage or delay in delivery: provided further that the multimodal transport operator shall not be liable for loss or damage arising out of delay in delivery unless the consignor had made a declaration of interest in timely delivery which has been accepted by the multimodal transport operator explanation—for the purposes of this sub-section, "delay in delivery" shall be deemed to occur when the consignment has not been delivered within the time expressly agreed upon or, in the absence of such agreement, within a reasonable time required by a diligent multimodal transport operator, having regard to the circumstances of the case, to effect the delivery of the consignment      