On A Faster Lane

The 2018 Economic Survey had a small chapter on the logistics sector. Among other things, it predicted that with implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Indian logistics market is expected to go from $16 billion in 2018 to $215 billion in 2020, growing at 10.5 per cent annually. The growth in the previous five years had been 7.8 per cent.

Even before the GST was implemented, one sector that looked to benefit most from the new indirect tax regime was logistics and transportation. It was supposed to reduce transit time of trucks, increase fleet utilisation, drive formalisation in the transportation industry and trigger consolidation in the logistics sector. After all, GST has consolidated as many as 17 state and Central levies, including octroi/entry taxes, a reason for massive delays in truck