While grading Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) as an overall achiever in its Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) report for the year 2022, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) suggested that the government should improve like other coastal States on the reasonableness of pricing of logistics services and the extent of facilitation and ease of obtaining approvals.
It was mentioned in the report that the logistics performance index of the country is relied on by companies and businesses for making capital investments, hence the need for States to make up for the deficiencies in their logistics sector in order to catch the fancy of prospective investors.
The LEADS-2022 report said A.P. scored above average across indicators related to the quality of infrastructure except for the warehousing infrastructure and that it is rated above average on all indicators pertaining to the reliability of logistics services (but the pricing remains an issue).
A.P. is adjudged as a high scoring State regarding the ease of entry and grievance redressal mechanism related indicators. All States (including A.P.) in the coastal cluster barring West Bengal and Goa feature in the achiever’s segment led by Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka but they still have scope to make further improvements in the identified areas.
On its part, the State government had, in the run-up to the preparation of LEADS-2022, informed the MoC&I that it formulated the State Logistics Policy 2022-27 covering all major aspects of logistics such as creation of institutional mechanisms, development of logistics enabling infrastructure and fiscal incentives and is duly focussed on aligning with the National Logistics Policy (PM Gati Shakti master plan).
The industries pressed for speedy disbursement of fiscal incentives and grants for development of logistics infrastructure, cutting delays in the issuance of statutory clearances and approvals by the State government and for reducing the process and paperwork for securing approvals among a host of other matters to be revolved.
Published - November 04, 2022 02:11 pm IST
