In order to boost the country's outbound shipments and make it competitive, finance and railways ministries are working on the issue relating to reducing export logistics costs. Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has raised her concern over slow growth in exports and said "I have very clearly stated that logistics costs are increasing and therefore, we are becoming less competitive... We have definitely asked different authorities at different levels. We have asked the Railways and the Finance Ministers to look into this. They are working on it,"
The minister further stated that that they don’t want this kind of a cost which is not due to the inefficiency of the manufacture. Therefore, they have discussed the issue relating to the increasing logistics costs with the Finance Minister.
She said that logistics is one of the 'biggest issues' and it makes the cost competitiveness produced by an efficient exporter unviable. The department of commerce has suggested to the Railways Ministry that it needs to clearly distinguish between consignments for exports, imports and general, in terms of freight rates. It was also suggested to the railways to work on ways to reduce the delivery time of consignments providing traders more predictability and reliability.
A Commerce Ministry strategy paper released in 2010 had emphasized the need to invest billions in improving infrastructure to boost exports. It had asked the government to invest in modernizing roads, ports, railways, airports, power and customs stations. Indian exporters have time and again demanded drastic cuts in freight rates to enhance price competitiveness in the global markets as costs of exports is currently very high in India. Due to weak global demand and slide in oil prices, country’s exports fell for 18 straight months in between December 2014 and May 2016.
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