Logistics needs govt support
The Government can propagate the importance of logistics and freight-forwarding by educating the youth of the country. Courses such as International Business should be introduced at the graduation level itself rather than in post graduation (such as MBA).
The Logistics industry is continuously undergoing many changes. It is increasingly becoming global in its design and organization and more and more localised in every stage of execution.
Commenting on the Central Government GD Walimbe, Head Business Management- North, Emirates Logistics India said, “The government ought to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the logistics and freight enjoys its support in becoming a facilitator than being referred as a controller so that the industry returns in contributing to the overall development of the economy and nation.”
It is so important to understand that our industry is a large contributor to the infrastructure development in supply chain related activities. The industry’s strength can reach out to areas where in the states’ mechanisms have failed to a certain extent. Just to site an example, many food grains in India gets damage every year probably due to the poor infrastructure of government run and controlled warehouses and distribution facilities, he added.
He further said that the government has neglected freight-forwarding industry so far. To improve its condition government can introduce tax waiver schemes or reduction in various excise duties. The benefits will result in increase of cash piles which will further help the companies to invest more.
He also cited some areas which the State can closely look into.
Transportation: Transport is the back bone of any logistics of freight activity. However, there are time restrictions on movement of transporters leading to backlog, corruption, increase in costs. A transport medium is not the cause of traffic. Then why do have private buses plying?
Customs: Customs department should open their offices like excise in the areas where the industrial area is established. Government may have some criteria on the location of custom department depending on the scale and number of industries in that area. Once inspection of the goods is done, by the customs authority, the transport vehicle should be sealed by customs officials and the cargo should be transported to airport or ICD/Port, from where the cargo can be loaded onto the container or Aircraft.
Warehousing: To establish a warehouse one has to go through lot of documentation such as DDA, MCD. There should be single authority who can allow certification on the basis of following criteria to open warehouse.
Land and Usage: The process of acquisition of land should be uniform across the state and country. The taxes levied, the restrictions, the allowances should be uniform in every state. Land acquisition should be kept simple with proper check points so that no corruption/illegal usage of land takes place. All the formalities to acquire the basic needs like electricity, water supply, security should be kept simple
Customs Restrictions to pen
old cases: It has been observed that customs bring in light very old cases which are no more relevant in today’s times, and thus hamper the productivity of the organizations. Custom officials then penalize exporters/Importers/freight Forwarders on the basis of these cases. The customs should be held responsible for the mismanagement and lapse on their part and thus a penalty should be levied on the customs department. The fund collected from these penalties should be saved and be used for Public Infrastructure like customs bond area, conveyer Belts or any other way which can be advantageous to Logistics and Freight Forwarding Industry.