Union Budget expectations 2022-23 towards international cargo and logistics

January 21, 2022

India needs to reduce its vulnerability, due to over dependence on foreign cargo carriers. India should have its own strong ocean and air carriers owned and operated by Indian corporates. Covid-19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of Indian trade being totally at the mercy of the foreign carriers and the opportunistic price hikes in freight rates to benefit certain countries, writes Lancy Barboza, of Flomic Global Logistics.

The government should come up with a policy document which will encourage large private companies to own and operate ocean and air shipping lines out of India. Since these are highly capital intensive and complex business operations the govt of India should play the role of a facilitator and extend all possible help to private corporates to set up shipping lines and airlines.

Another area is the production of ocean containers which saw a massive shortage due to these containers getting held up at various ports and delivery centers. As a part of "Make in India" government of India should offer all possible incentives and tax breaks to those who are manufacturing containers in India. Containersation should be encouraged for Domestic cargo movements which will totally revolutionize the cargo movement within the country resulting is faster turnaround of vehicles reduce dwell time and eliminate damage and pilferage of cargo.

The logistics cost increases due to dwell time of the cargo. One of the ways to reduce dwell time is to increase automation and mechanization of cargo handling. So industries that manufacture cargo handling and lifting equipment's should be give special concessions and interest subsidies. This will also help in "Make in India"

Government of India is promoting use of solar energy in a big way. Extending this further cold storage warehouses run on solar energy should be given incentives and subsidies. This will help better utilization of farm and dairy products and increase the yield of farmers and at the same time it is environment friendly too.

Government of India should also encourage use of electric vehicles in cargo transportation and should give various incentives and subsidies.

Government of India should further push digitalization and paperless processing of all cargo related documentation. E-Way bill and E-Sanchit of Indian customs should be further expedited and fast forwarded.

Lancy Barboza is the managing director, Flomic Global Logistics

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Transport & Logistics News