A productive step taken by Indian Government for the Indian Logistics Industry

Indian Logistics sector has been granted infrastructure status.

“The logistics sector has been granted infrastructure status. The inclusion of “Logistics Sector” in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure Sub-sectors was considered in the 14th Institutional Mechanism (IM) Meeting held on 10th November, 2017.

Realising the importance of the logistics sector to promote trade, the government has created a separate special secretary-level post in the commerce ministry to coordinate with all the ministries concerned and departments.

Earlier, there was no single department or ministry to look at all the aspects related to logistics covering various modes of shipment such as sea, roads and railways.

Since the logistics cost in India is very high compared to developed countries, this new step leads to development of logistics and would give a boost to both domestic and external demand thereby encouraging manufacturing and ‘job creation’.

This will in turn be instrumental in improving country’s GDP. Logistics Infrastructure” means and includes Multi-modal Logistics Park comprising Inland Container Depot (ICD), Cold Chain Facility and Warehousing Facility.

This status would help the sector get credit at competitive rates and on a long-term basis as rising logistics cost impacts global competitiveness of exporters.

It will enable the Logistics Sector to avail infrastructure lending at easier terms with enhanced limits, access to larger amounts of funds as External Commercial Borrowings (ECB), access to longer tenor funds from insurance companies and pension funds and be eligible to borrow from India Infrastructure Financing Company Limited (IIFCL).

The upcoming days will be an opportunity for flourishment of Indian Logistics sector and surely this will help us bringing more business into action.”

Article by FEI Cargo Ltd. (only for ALN members)