Frequent stoppages by police and transport authorities have been cited to be a major challenge that pushes up the overall logistics cost of India. This comes after Gujarat topped the ranking of states on ease of logistics amongst 21 other states followed by Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, as per the Commerce Ministry report released on November 8.
The Indian government has set a target to lower the GDP by five percentage as the country has a major cost disadvantage with logistics cost which is estimated at around 14% of GDP.
Also read: Gujarat Bags First Position In Logistics Index Chart
Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal said that the latest Logistics Ease Across Difference States (LEADS) is expected to spur competition among states to improve their performance and will help reduce the overall cost.
The report is filled with complaints of transport department and police stopping consignments, although four years ago the Centre had suggested that following the implementation of GST, there would be a check post-free experience across the country, especially state borders. Clearly, the states aren’t playing ball.
Undue stoppages were also reported by transport department across most states – from Gujarat, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, UP and Karnataka with respondents saying that Maharashtra police refused to accept papers stored in Digi Locker despite the repeated assurances from the Centre.
