Govt Goes After ‘Intermediaries' To Cut Logistics Costs For Export-Import Trade

Intermediaries in the supply chain are staring at a bleak future with the government drafting new rules seeking to regulate their pricing to cut logistics costs for exporters and importers.

- P Manoj

A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) targeting the non-vessel owning common carriers (NVOCCs), freight forwarders and consolidators is being finalised. The SOP seeks to standardise the plethora of local charges levied by these intermediaries into 10-12 heads and to levy these charges as per cost without adding any margins/profits. The intermediaries will be allowed to earn profit only on the freight head. There is also a thinking to check intermediaries from earning margins/money even on the freight component, a government official briefed on the plan said.

‘Refund demand not amenable’

To add to the woes, the government is also pushing the Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India (AMTOI) to undertake an internal audit of all its members for the last three years and to refund the local charges collected from customers.