Infrastructure offers immense scope for logistics services

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, OCT. 7. The focus on infrastructure development, especially roads and the emerging analogy in sales tax structure, augurs well for multi-national companies seeking to launch logistics services in India, according to top executives of TNT Logistics, one of the largest integrated distribution companies worldwide.

Several restrictions on movement of goods within the country would be lifted once a uniform sales tax regime is put in place, thus ``helping in easy movement of inventory, both backwards and forwards'', Mr.Jeroen de Wilde, Regional Director-Asia for TNT Logistics told The Hindu.

Mr. Wilde, who was here recently for the logistics exhibition, said similar rates of sales tax would not only result in easy movement, but also enable manufacturers to ``minimise their stock and mainatin just-in-time inventory''. In other words, it would reduce to a large extent the financial impact on the manufacturer. Mr. Harry Lagad, National Operations Director of TNT Logistics said, ``The measures would also result in disappearing of threshold limits for goods, simultaneously opening up markets''.

Saying that logistics was about ``moving information and not goods alone'', Mr.Wilde said TNT India, the wholly owned subsidiary of the Amsterdam-based TPG N.V., had decided to launch its logistics service in the country. At present, the subsidiary specialises and operates in the international express distribution only.

Seeking to set a trend for other global logistics providers to follow, TNT believed that there was a ``big opportunity'' in the country, with ``the market getting ready for logistics.''

The idea was to carve out a niche by offering ``an integrated end-to-end logistics solution and take care of the entire needs of the customer-company,'' in an environment that was now fragmented, Mr. Wilde pointed out. The underlying concept was ``to partner in the company's (customers) growth by allowing it to concentrate on its core competency''. Aiding the services of TNT India, will be tools of technology that would be customised for each client.

For its logistics services, TNT India would target companies engaged in automobiles, electronics, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and information technology. From designing, implementation and operating the supply chain demand, TNT India could offer complete logistics solutions, a concept of `from thought to finish'.

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