A groundbreaking policy initiative by Centre for the logistics industry. On 17.09.2022, Saturday, the Hon’ble PM launched the National Logistics Policy (NLP) at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The NLP policy is aimed at promoting seamless movement of goods and enhancing the competitiveness of the industry. It is expected to focus on areas such as process re-engineering, digitisation, and multi-modal transport. The policy is an endeavour to improve the competitiveness of Indian goods, enhancing economic growth and increasing employment opportunities, a statement said.
The said policy further seeks to support faster growth after two pandemic-ridden years. It will streamline rules and address supply-side constraints, besides providing a roadmap to reduce fuel costs and lower logistics costs. The draft policy attempts to create a government affiliated single point of reference for all logistics and trade facilitation matters, reducing costs for the logistics sector to 10 per cent in five years. The logistics sector is estimated at 13-14 per cent of GDP.
The Central government has been working on the NLP for the past three years. In fact, the Ministry of Commerce had released a Draft Logistics Policy for consultation in 2019, which was however delayed due the Covid-19 pandemic. Thereafter, the National Logistics Policy was once again announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget for 2022-23.
PM Modi remarked that the government is using technology to strengthen the logistics sector. Faceless assessment has started in customs and e-way bills and FASTag are bringing efficiency in the logistics sector.
For Indian products to capture world markets, the country has to strengthen its support system. “National Logistics Policy helps in making the support system modern,” the Prime Minister said.
India is now the world’s fifth largest economy and is emerging as a manufacturing hub. The world has accepted the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced by the government for boosting domestic manufacturing, he said.
“Sagarmala project to connect ports and dedicated freight corridors have started to improve logistics connectivity and systematic infrastructure development work”, the Hon’ble PM remarked.
