New Delhi, March 5 (PTI): The shipping ministry has asked the finance ministry to explore possibilities of providing service tax exemption to the shipyards to let them remain competitive, without which the survival of the domestic ship repair industry would be jeopardised.

In an urgent note to the finance ministry, the shipping ministry has pointed out that as far as domestic ship repair industry was cocerned, it was yet to attain the critical size to attract business and investments without support from the government.

“The margins of the ship repair industry is very thin and the additional expenses due to the levy of 10.2 per cent service tax cannot be passed on to its customers. The industry faces stiff competition from foreign shipyards located nearby, such as, in Dubai, Singapore and Colombo,” said Susheel Kumar, joint secretary, shipping ministry.