Comments
The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways has suggested that the Centre should consider extending fiscal incentives, on the lines of Special Economic Zones, to infrastructure projects under the proposed National Logistics Policy and also give sops like interest subsidy, reimbursement of part of capital investment, stamp duty exemption and exemption of tax on electricity.
In its response, the Commerce & Industry Ministry, which is framing the policy, has said that viability gap funding may be offered based on the detailed project assessment, but for other incentives there has to be more stakeholder consultations.
“Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal recently reviewed the draft National Logistics Policy and action plan for implementation of the policy. The Ministry is likely to send the policy for approval of the Cabinet soon,” a government official told BusinessLine .
The key proposals in the draft policy include setting up a national logistics online marketplace to simplify trade documentation, incentivising logistics to make it more efficient, putting in place a data and analytics center for monitoring key logistics metrics and conceptualising a center of excellence to drive innovation.
An Integrated National Logistics Action Plan for all logistics related development will also be finalised.
The policy envisages bringing down logistics cost from 14 per cent of GDP to about 9 per cent and also creating employment opportunities for 10-15 million people.
Following suggestions an addition that has been made to the draft is a proposed focus on fisheries and marine products in planning for cold chain infrastructure. It has been decided to include the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in the apex committee.
The Ministry of Road Transport, in the consultation, also suggested that the PPP (public private partnership) mode should be the preferred mode of implementation of logistics infrastructure to encourage private investments and bring in new technologies.
The Commerce & Industry Ministry officials replied that while private development of infrastructure will be encouraged, PPP mode will be the preferred mode wherever relevant based on the interests of the investors.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.