Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that with demonetisation(DeMo), a GST regime and efforts to augment infrastructure, India’s revenue receipts could touch Rs30 lakh crore in the next two years.
Inaugurating the maiden India Integrated Transport and logistics (IITl) Summit which saw various Government departments join hands on a single platform, Gadkari said that the Government is working on an integrated transport policy and creation of world-class infrastructure could propel India on the path of development and wipe out poverty.
“Post-demonetisation and GST regime, India’s revenue receipts are likely to touch Rs28-30 lakh crore in the next two years coupled with steps to strengthen infrastructure,” Gadkari said. The summit is in line with the Government’s plans to have an effective multi-modal logistics and transport sector to make Indian economy more competitive.
He said at the time the Narendra Modi Government took over in 2014, the revenue receipts were at Rs13 lakh crore which could scale up to Rs20 lakh crore during the three years of the present regime.
While Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu spelt out a target of Rs40,000 crore revenue from monetising its soft assets in the next 10 years, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the country’s air cargo sector is projected to grow at over nine per cent in the next few years.
Prabhu said that in a two-pronged strategy, the railways aims to increase earnings through traditional as well as non-traditional sources, while at the same time reducing expenditure. “Earlier the railways used to focus on traditional sources for revenue earnings, that is passenger fares and freight. Now, we have firmed up the non-fare revenue policy aiming to earn about Rs40,000 crore in the next 10 years,” Prabhu said at the IITlS.
He said in order to increase its freight earnings, railways has diversified its freight basket from 10 major commodities to about 40 goods. The public transporter, which has lost chunk of its loadings to the road sector, has reduced the freight rate in the recent past to attract more business.
Noting that various initiatives are being taken in the aviation sector, Raju said the regional connectivity scheme would help in continued growth of the air cargo sector. “Air cargo in India is expected to register 9 per cent growth rate in the next few years” compared to half of this figure for global air cargo trade as a whole, Raju said. In the last decade, air cargo sector witnessed a growth of around 7 per cent.
Delivering the keynote address at the India Integrated Transport and logistics Summit here, Raju said the regional connectivity scheme would help air cargo growth and as well as capture new business opportunities.