New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the National Logistics Policy. On this occasion, the Prime Minister said that this policy will prove to be very effective in addressing the challenges of the transport sector. This new policy is going to increase the speed of last-mile delivery and save money for businesses. With this policy, the logistics cost of businesses is expected to come down to single digits from the current 13-14 percent.
Prime Minister Modi said that today the total capacity of Indian ports has increased significantly. The average ‘turn-around time’ of ships has come down from 44 hours to 26 hours now. He said that the Sagarmala project connecting ports and dedicated freight corridors has started improving logistic connectivity and systematic work of development.
The cost will come down
According to a government official, the policy will help in reducing the cost by 7.5 percent in the coming years. A policy like Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) and Ease of Logistics Services (eLogs) will help exporters and industry to increase logistics efficiency.
E-Logs Portal for Resolving Problems
ULIPs will bring all the digital services related to the transport sector into one portal and will free the exporters from the very lengthy and cumbersome processes. Similarly, an e-logs portal has also been launched, through which industries can directly raise any issues which are causing problems in their operation and performance with the government agencies. A complete system has also been prepared for the speedy resolution of such cases.
According to experts, the government is using technology to strengthen the logistics sector. Faceless assessment of customs and e-way bills has started and FASTag is bringing efficiencies in the logistics sector. Also, drones will improve it further.
India emerging as a manufacturing hub
The Prime Minister said that India has now become the fifth largest economy in the world and is emerging as a manufacturing hub. He said that the world has accepted the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) launched by the government to promote domestic manufacturing.
He said that the government is using technology to strengthen the logistics sector and the system of assessment has been started in Customs without going in front of the official. At the same time, e-way bills and FASTag are also increasing the effectiveness in the logistics sector. Referring to the strengthening of its support mechanism for penetration of Indian products into the world markets, the Prime Minister said that the National Logistics Policy will help modernize the support system.
Work on National Logistics Policy for the last three years
Referring to the drone policy, the Prime Minister said that this would improve the logistics sector. He said the policy, designed to help spur growth after two years of the pandemic, will streamline regulations, remove bottlenecks in the supply chain and provide a framework to reduce fuel costs and logistics costs.
The central government has been working on the National Logistics Policy for the last three years. The draft policy was released by the Ministry of Commerce in 2019 but it was delayed due to Kovid-19. In the Budget 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman once again announced this policy.
