Leather exporters seek fiscal incentives in Budget

New Delhi: The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has asked the government to provide fiscal incentives in the Budget such as the PLI scheme and reinstatement of import duty exemption on certain goods to boost manufacturing and exports.

The council has also suggested the government consider permitting the export of all value-added leathers, including crust leathers, freely without any export duty, norms, inspection, testing or certification.

CLE Chairman Sanjay Leekha said that the import duty exemption was available to the industry for the last 30 years but was withdrawn two years back and this has made the availability of international leather difficult for the industry.

"In case, it is reinstated, it could ensure that our products manufacturing sectors would have access to international leather and hence make us more competitive and more up-to-date with our product offerings," he said.

He also said that export duty should be levied only on Raw Hides and Skins, Wet Blue Leathers and anything beyond that should be considered as a finished product and it should be freely permitted to be exported.

"This has actually become a necessity because, in the last few years, our sector has lost almost USD 1 billion of exports...We can bring back USD 1 billion of exports if the norms are changed," he added.

The council has also sought an extension of the PLI (Production Linked Incentive) scheme to the leather and footwear sector to promote domestic manufacturing.

On exports, he said, unfortunately, there is a little downtrend due to the global slowdown in the current year.

However, he expressed confidence that the slowdown is temporary, and the exports will bounce back.

"We have set some very aggressive exports targets for our industry. In fact, at the current level of about USD 5 billion or little over that, we expect our industry to reach USD 12.5 billion by 2030," he added.