The Centre should consider bringing fuel under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to give a boost to the logistics industry, says Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO, Gati Ltd. 

“As fuel still comes under excise today, if GST can be brought in fuel as well, it helps the industry in the form of providing input credit,” Sarkari told businessline in an interaction. 

On the other measures needed from the government to boost the logistics sector, he said the pace of developing the road infrastructure should continue like it has been in the last few years and the works on the rail corridor should be hastened so that the industry could use it more efficiently. 

Referring to Gati’s business, Sarkari said business is “good” in express logistics especially in auto and pharma sectors. 

“We have also seen a couple of new users in the express logistics space in the forms of e-commerce, among others. They are also looking at national express logistics companies where Gati has an advantage,’‘ he said. 

Expanding infra

Gati is also working on expanding its infrastructure in express logistics. “We have developed four new hubs and four more are coming by March 23,’‘ the CEO said.

While the newly developed hubs are in Farukhnagar, Mumbai, Nagpur and Guwahati, new ones are coming up in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Indore. 

As every hub has a minimum investment of about ₹5 to 6 crore, the company is spending about ₹45 crore on setting up the hubs. 

As a part of the Allcargo group, it is looking at participating in the multi-modal hubs as well. 

“We have also developed our mobile payment application so that our customers can pay us digitally. Our entire CRM has been completely digitised,’‘ Sarkari said. 

Related Topics