In drawing down the cost of logistics in the country the GST has played an effective role. The ‘One Nation, One Tax‘ regime has assured that trucks did not need to wait for hours on the state borders which has drawn down the travel time by up to 30%.
It has diminished the cost of logistics and increased the average distance trucks travel from 225 km before GST to 300-325 km, the Economic Survey 2023-24 tabled in Parliament articulated.
It adds value to facilitate in performing the business and the expansion of manufacturing in the country.
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) study of December previous year has indicated that the cost of logistics in the economy has lowered 0.8 to 0.9 percentage points of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) between FY14 and FY22.
From 44th place in 2018 to 38th in 2023 out of 139 countries India’s position in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) rose. The improvement has been driven by the decline in logistics costs and better trade facilitation.
With the start of cargo tracking, dwell time in the eastern port of Visakhapatnam declined from 32.4 days in 2015 to 5.3 days in 2019. Also, from 44 in 2018 to 22 in 2023, the position of the country in international shipments climbed due to its modernization and digitalization measures.
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The score of the infrastructure has been moved up five places and four places up to 48 in logistics competence and equality.
By 2030 the motive of the country is to be in the top 25 countries on the LPI.
