Time To Reduce Logistics Cost By 5% : Piyush Goyal

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Time To Reduce Logistics Cost By 5% : Piyush Goyal

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal said that the inputs given by Logistics Ease Across Different States Report 2021 can lead the way to bring down logistics cost by 5% over the next five years. He was addressing the gathering after the release of the LEADS Report in New Delhi recently. He said that India is committed to build modern infrastructure for the 21st century, at a pace never seen before. Referring to the recently launched PM GatiShakti Master Plan, he said that it would revolutionise the next generation of multimodal infrastructure development in the country. Lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's consistent focus on infrastructure, Goyal said that the initiatives taken by him in Gujarat for 13 years had laid the foundation for Gujarat to consistently stay at the top of the chart in LEADS report. He said that the speed of highway construction has increased three fold from 12 km/day in 2013-14 to 37 km/day in 2020-21 and that there was a four-fold increase in railways capex from Rs 54,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs. 2.15 lakh crore in 2021-22. He named infrastructure, quality services and conducive regulatory framework as the three pillars of resilient logistics. He added that with competitive and cooperative federalism, LEADS is creating an ecosystem for excellence by bringing in a healthy competitive spirit where everyone is persuaded to improve. "Rather than just absolute improvement in one state, improvement of logistics across all states, will be a force multiplier for the entire logistics ecosystem", he said. He lauded Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab for having acquired the top three positions respectively. Within the North Eastern States and Himalayan Region, Jammu and Kashmir is the top ranker followed by Sikkim and Meghalaya. Delhi stands at the top rank among Other UTs. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have witnessed a remarkable improvement in their ranks compared to 2019 LEADS ranking and have emerged as the top improvers. He applauded the actions taken by Gujarat government based on LEADS 2019 recommendations such as the widening of roads, implementation of faceless services in license renewals, expansion of warehousing, etc. He also congratulated the State of Uttar Pradesh for leapfrogging seven ranks since 2019, highest among all states, driven by policy initiatives, higher infra spending in logistics. He outlined a number of suggestions for states including framing of state logistics policy and logistics master plan, use single-window clearance system for logistics establishment of grievance redressal mechanism and enabling of skilling in logistics through state skilling infrastructure. Freight charges up 25-30% on rising fuel prices: CII The 30-35% increase in the price of diesel in 2020-21 has contributed to a 25-30% increase in freight rates, as per a study by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Institute of Logistics. “Transportation accounts for nearly 50% of the total logistics costs, which is 14% of the GDP,” says the Compendium of the Logistics Sector released in the presence of Additional Secretary, Logistics, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Amrit Lal Meena. The CII Centre of Excellence in Logistics and Supply Chain (CII Institute of Logistics) has documented a Compendium of Logistics Policies after facilitating five stakeholder roundtables in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Haryana. The compendium highlights how states are looking at incentivising and promoting logistics and warehousing.