The announcement of shipping rates and the lack of transparency in shipping bills are two challenges in the logistics sectors that the minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, raised worry about on Thursday. He asked the industry to address these problems. “I’m still not happy with the shipping rates, which are not clearly disclosed. The shipping bills include uncertainties and are opaque. You must put some effort into that,” he added.
The minister was addressing representatives of the logistics sectors at the National Logistics Excellence award here.
”Logistics has several leakages. Several meetings we have held…I was benevolent because of Covid….(I hope) I do not have to make some tough decisions in the meetings later,” he cautioned.
Certain quarters of the industry, including exporters, have raised issues with regard to shipping rates, which impact the cost of products.
He said that the industry and government will have to work together to reduce the logistics cost, which is estimated at 13-14 per cent of the GDP against 7-8 per cent in the developed nations. The minister also said that the government is working on schemes to make container manufacturing viable in India. He expressed hope that soon some new ideas would come for making sure that container manufacturing not only meets India’s requirements but also the world’s. ”We are very seriously working to see how we can expand shipbuilding in India…We want to attract shipping lines,” he added.
