Logistics major Agarwal Packers & Movers has sought a set of tax sops to take India’s logistics to $300 billion business by 2020, a critical industry to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Make in India plan and job creating MSME sector.
Giving a long wish list to Finance Ministry, Agarwal Packers Chairman Ramesh Agarwal, said the tax sops are also crucial to revive the sagging economy in the face of global slowdown.
Logistics business operates on wafer-thin margin because of cut throat competition in the sector with most of the operators with small fleet of vehicles. A cut in tax deducted at source (TDS) will help the industry immensely, Agarwal said.
Grey areas in service tax ruling results in unnecessary harassment and these needed to be sorted out in the budget, he said adding early implementation of Goods and Services Tax will help the industry. The industry loses Rs 18,000 crore business because of delay at toll gates and this will get eliminated with rollout of GST.
Agarwal wanted more clarity on various direct tax issues like procedural tax assessment and occasional shipping business, transfer pricing on outbound/inbound leg of freight forwarding transactions etc., which is currently cast in litigation.
He sought more funding for dedicated freight corridors for speedy implementation.
“To make things more structural, formation of a regulatory logistic body by uniting key policy stakeholders across ministries for any integrated approach towards project planning and development is required,” he said.
To support ‘Make in India’ initiative, Agarwal wanted fillip to transportation sector.
