Commerce Ministry for closure of interstate check points post GST

The Commerce Ministry has asked its finance counterpart to close all the inter-state check points after implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The move would help in seamless movement of goods from one state to the other and it will acts as a "big boon particularly to exporters", an official said.

The suggestion was made to the Finance Ministry with a view to enhance logistics competitiveness of Indian exporters.

Citing an example, the official said one truck takes about 258 minutes at the inter-state check point in Assam.

In some states, this time varies from 60 minutes to hundreds of minutes.

According to a study, in India, trucks spend 60 per cent of their time in plying on roads while 40 per cent of the time, they spend on check points and other approval related issues.

Due to this, the productivity of trucks declines and he rate goes up.

There are over 600 interstate checkpoints in the country and it increases truck travel time

GST is expected to roll out from April next.