Mumbai:The government will finalise itsambitious draft national logistics policy within a month, an official said.The Centre had extended the deadline of February 28 for submission of comments from stakeholders till March 8 to incorporate suggestions from them to create a holistic policy.
"We have incorporated most of the comments and suggestions made by the stakeholders. But we extended the deadline to ensure that all the aspects are covered in the policy. We arehopeful that the final policy will be out in a month's time," Ministry of Commerce and Industry special secretary (Logistics) N Sivasailam said at the CII event here.
The objective of the draft policy 2018 is to create a national logistics e-marketplace as a one-stop marketplace for exporters and importers, set up a separate fund for start-ups in the logistics sector and to double employment in the sector.
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"Through the policy framework, we want to strengthen and prioritize the key objectives and also clarify the role of the various stakeholders including central ministries, state governments and other key regulatory bodies," he said. The draft policy also seeks to create a single point of reference for all logistics and trade facilitation matters in the country which will also function as a knowledge and information sharing platform.
"Through the effective implementation of the policy,we hope to provide an impetus to trade, enhance export competitiveness, improve Indias ranking in the Logistics Performance Index to between 25 and 30, reduce losses due to agri-wastage to less than 5 percent and bring down logistics costs to 10 percent of GDP from the current levels of 13-14 percent," Sivasailam added.
(Inputs from PTI)
