Opportunities galore

GST is creating a buzz yet again and with less than a month left for its implementation the industry is gearing up to see how this phase fares. The government has issued a statement to keep large number of items under 18 per cent tax slab. The FMCG segment will be the direct beneficiary through the reduction of nearly seven to eight per cent tax. From the broader perspective, the new tax regime will allow savings on logistics and will encourage the industry to be more organised. With a continuous government endeavour to improve infrastructure within the industry, GST will indeed be a cherry on the cake.

Warehousing will be the unambiguous beneficiary from GST; be it making the sector organised, reducing the current scattered warehousing, bringing efficiency or optimising cost, the segment will reap positive rewards. In the transportation segment, GST hopes to boost demand for high tonnage trucks and expects to bring about an overall reduction in transportation costs. The industry associations are also in constant touch with the ministry to make the tax more profitable for the sector.

On the aviation front, there is an ardent requirement for skilled personnel and understanding that the sector will require 1,50,000 skilled workforce by 2020, the Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) launched an Advance Air Cargo Handling Training Programme to benefit the air cargo industry in India. The aviation sector will also witness the advent of another innovation which is a customised vehicle from the company — Celebi. The vehicle has been conceptualised with an aim to bring cost optimisation.

In our debate, industry experts opine on modes of transport being competitive with each other rather than being alternatives for the same traffic.