Kolkata, Feb 21 (PTI) B2B e-commerce major mjunction services ltd is set to launch a mobile application for bunker procurement, or marine fuelling, in order to boost the digitised shipping ecosystem across the world's major ports, company Managing Director Vinaya Varma said on Monday.

Tata Steel and SAIL's joint venture technology company said taxation is an issue that needs to be addressed in order to make such services more competitive in the global market.

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In shipping, bunkering is the process of supplying fuel to be used to power the propulsion system of a ship.

All ship owners, operators and shipping management services will be able to buy ship fuel through a transparent process in all the important ports of India, Singapore, UAE, Europe & USA with the app mjSEAPROC, the company said.

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"We are set to launch an app for bunkering services for all important global ports of the world. Bunker prices have limited validity and the entire process of price finalisation needs to be completed in 45 minutes," Varma told PTI.

In this highly volatile market, quick turnaround time is essential for bunkering and it will be ensured with the mobile application operating in self-service mode, he said.

Varma said mjunction stepped into the bunker procurement business in 2020 at a critical time when the world was hit by the pandemic and bunker procurement professionals were finding it difficult to manage through traditional means.

"This gave birth to the idea of digitising the bunker (ship fuel) procurement process. The objective was to connect buyers and sellers digitally enabling them to manage the bunker bidding process," he said.

Explaining the taxation issue, Varma said, "mjunction conducts e-marketplace services for the sale and purchase of goods and services, within and outside India. Outside India, it earns in foreign exchange. Such services are being classified as intermediary services and GST is levied, making its cost to serve higher and thus such services are becoming uncompetitive in the international market."

mjunction which began its journey back in 2001 with steel and then moved to the e-auction of coal in 2005, now caters to major commodities in agri, mining, metal and energy markets.

Asserting that mjunction remains committed to small businesses of the country, Varma said, "MSMEs is an integral part of mjunction's working backbone – as that is the segment that also benefits from our digitisation initiatives.

"Our teams are spread across every part of the country, handholding every small stakeholder with domain knowledge and of course the bidding process. Adopting digitisation is still a continuous process and switching to digital modes still requires convincing. "

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)