1. COVERSTORY2 0 CARGOTALK FEBRUARY 2015
Vijay Kumar
Chief Operating Officer, Express Industry Council of India (EICI)
More than fiscal incentives/ changes, EICI has been asking the
government for procedural simplifications and modifications so that
customs clearances are expedited at all gateways.The regulatory
clearances required, if simplified, would go a long way in improving
India’s ranking in‘Ease of Doing Business’. Secondly, customs staff
are posted on cost recovery at express terminals.Customs clearance
is a sovereign function and cost recovery of staff posted at terminals
should be waived off. Despite customs having issued a notification
providing norms for such waivers in April 2013, this has yet not been implemented.We hope the
government would implement this to lower transaction costs for our exporters and importers.
Vineet Kanaujia
Vice President – Marketing, Safexpress
The biggest challenge is poor infrastructure whether it is
roads, railways or airports; the golden quadrilateral activity has to
be paced up.Regulatory bodies should be removed and the check
posts should be automated.A uniform taxation system, ie, GST can
help in that.There is a huge supply chain skill gap. Looking at the
bottom of the pyramid, it is where the maximum number of man-
power exists. But there is a huge gap because they are not paid
well and there is a lack of basic amenities.We need training insti-
tutes as the drivers are not well trained. Apart from the three pri-
mary things that the government needs to look at, the ‘Industry’ status is going to help as our
industry has too many Ministries.
ML Arora
Chief Executive Officer, Fresh & Healthy Enterprises
As most of the promotional schemes of various government
departments are limited to providing subsidies for construction of
cold storages, food parks, logistics, etc my expectations and rec-
ommendations to the Government of India for development of cold
chain are as under:
Customs and excise duties on cold chain equipment need to
be pegged at five per cent or below to encourage domestic and for-
eign investments for minimising horticultural wastages and increas-
ing shelf life of products;
Construction of pre-cooling centres, cold stores in the production areas should be given top
most priority in all government schemes;
Budget allocation shall be increased for supporting pre-harvest activities for farmers like
improving the seed stock to augment irrigation facilities;
The government should promote launching of well-designed and large-scale projects under
PPP model on a viability gap funding basis to modernise the country's cold chain.
Radharamanan Panicker
Managing Partner, R Logistics Solutions and Managing Director, Dangerous
Goods Management India
The logistics industry needs clear cut policy from the govern-
ment on various elements of logistics business- warehousing zone
policy, dangerous goods storage & handling policy and infrastructure
development.The entire policy on Customs with respect to estab-
lishment of new bonded facility inside and outside the airport should
be changed.Customs deployment on new bonded facilities or airport
facility should be completely free of custom’s cost recovery. Most
importantly in terms of dangerous goods transportation especially by air, there needs to be a better
regulation and monitoring as the way the whole business is today developing. Finally there has to
be an authority on all matters of air cargo – the government needs to finalise that.
Debabrata Bhattacharjee
General Manager- India and Sub- Continent, Goodpack Returnable Solutions India
The Indian logistics industry as a whole is a highly fragmented one and
as it is already marred with a rigid tax environment hopefully GST will come to
the rescue, sooner rather than later.The current lay out of the budget has mixed
reactions from industry players like us as we were expecting a reform-oriented
budget, which would completely overhaul the prevailing taxation system and
smoothen the transition of the much awaited GST. Other key initiatives
should be around decongestion of seaports and airports, engineer the overlap of
cargo networks, clarity on various ongoing tax issues so as to mitigate litigations,
implement the movement of bulk commodities into mutimodal modes like rail and
waterways leading to cost management and more options for logistics players
like us.The intention and the aim of the new government to provide a ‘Robust physical
infrastructure’ connecting each part key manufacturing clusters in the country is
also a very welcome move and we as a logistics industry entity look forward to its
quick implementation.
Rajinder Singh
Managing Director, Janta Roadways
It is necessary to develop sustainable strategy based on inno-
vative infrastructure that would apply effective modern technology
to multiply the road transport to attain free movement of the vehicles
on the Indian roads. The transport industry could not gets its due
recognition like any other industry since the same is very much unor-
ganised.
The ‘Industry’ status may be conferred for transport industry.
A Transport University to be set up.
Logistics parks to be set up across the country for speedy delivery
Multimodal transportation system to be encouraged and provide the required infrastructure.
Water ways and coastal shipping to be encouraged.
All the corporate and business organisations should share their outstanding more than 60 days
due to logistics or transport companies in their balance sheet and annual report as comes under
SME, MSME.
Weighted deduction under IncomeTax for research activities and driver welfare schemes should
be considered on par with the manufacturing research and development activities.
Varun AdityaThapar
Vice Chairman, Indicon Enterprises
In order to give a boost to the logistics sector, and particularly
the multi-modal container logistics sector as well as the cold chain
logistics sector, here are my suggestions:
There should be a rate classification review for container cargo
– more commodities and products should be allowed to be
transported by the CTOs.A competitive environment should be
encouraged rather than stymied by the Railways.
Developing a nation-wide cold chain network should be made
a focus point by encouraging investment into the sector through incentives and schemes.
There should be uniform VAT rate across all the states for the same manufactured goods
pertaining to the logistics sector. Lower taxation rates should be encouraged even when
GST comes in to boost domestic manufacturers of capital equipment.
Speedy completion of the DFCC will be a big boost for all logistics players.
SA Mohan
Chief Executive Officer, Maini Materials Movement
We are expecting a growth-oriented budget encouraging invest-
ments in infrastructure and heightening consumption demand.This
could be achieved by easy tax regime further enabling exports.n
There must be a specific focus to give a boost to the warehousing
sector and modernise it to international standards. I am sure that
the next union budget will fulfil these expectations and create an
environment for graduating Indian warehousing and logistics market
to offer value propositions.
Atul Shah
Country Director, Kardex India Storage Solutions
Faster implementation and roll out of DTC and GST is what can
instate a new vigour. It will also prove that the government is ready
to‘walk the talk’.For‘Supply Chain and Logistics’per se this will have
very wide impact considering current hindrances faced by all man-
ufactures or importers for improving distribution efficiencies. The
effect can be so viral and have lubricating effect over the logistical
challenges faced today, by this sector, that it will help in reduction of
cost which can be passed on to the consumer and support to the
government in its effort to tame inflation.
Contd. from page 16
Stakeholders look forward to reform budget
Contd. on page 22