In NEW DELHI: According to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, the government is working to reduce the cost of logistics to 7.5% of GDP from the present level of 13%.
Speaking at Assocham’s annual meeting, Shah asserted that the country’s infrastructure needed to be improved and logistics costs needed to fall.
According to him, Indian exports struggle to compete on a global scale since logistical costs in India account for 13% of GDP, compared to 8% elsewhere.
“The eight percent and thirteen percent disparity will need to be closed. For the following five years, we have developed a framework. I can guarantee that during the next five years we will attain a logistics cost of 7.5% “said he.
Shah claimed that the Narendra Modi administration has a plan for investing Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure, including some mega projects like the doubling and widening of railway lines, the creation of specific freight corridors between Mumbai and Delhi and Amritsar and Kolkata, as well as 11 other industrial corridors.
Shah noted additional infrastructure sector accomplishments made possible by significant programmes and stated that the government has set a goal to lower logistics costs below the national average by 2028 in order to make exports more competitive internationally.
The minister expressed confidence that a firm foundation has been set by the Modi administration for India to become a developed country by 2047 and to have a $5 trillion GDP by 2022.
In a dig at former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Shah claimed that while Modi was outlining the Digital India programme, the Congressman questioned how modest payments would be made to street vendors and whether villages would have broadband and electricity to support such transactions.
Today, practically every firm uses UPI, he claimed.
“UPI generated 52% of the Rs 1.26 lakh crore or 8,840 crore digital transactions in 2022,” he said.
Shah also praised Modi for being the first person in history to give a human face to the grim GDP figures through social programmes.
