Govt likely to come out with logistics cost estimate by Sept: DPIIT Special Secretary

Cont’d. from Pg. 3

At present, the Government is going by certain estimates, which suggest that India's logistics cost stands at about 13-14 per cent of the country's GDP (gross domestic product).

Special Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Sumita Dawra said that the Government is coming out with its logistics cost framework. The framework would include elements of this cost and how to measure that. "So our framework is being done with the help of our technical partner and it's almost done. But then we have to calculate and I think by the month of

September, we will have realistic logistics costs in the country. We will define what are the components and we will have our own estimates," she said while speaking at CII's conclave ontradefacilitation.

Logistics cost plays a keyroleinfacilitatingtrade andenhancingthecompetitivenessof traders.TheDepartmentconducteda workshop in March on the logistics cost framework, and a task force was set up to formulate a framework to determinethecostintheCountry.

The task force members include representatives from Niti Aayog, the MinistryofStatisticsandProgramme

Implementation (MOSPI), the NationalCouncilofAppliedEconomic Research (NCAER), academic experts,andotherstakeholders. The Government has rolled out a national logistics policy and PM Gati Shakti initiative to boost the competitiveness of the industry and cutlogisticscosts.