Council For Leather Exports - CLE-ITPO Press Meet on 34th India International Leather Fair & India Leather Week 2019

 

(L-R) Mrs.Deepa, General Manager ITPO, Mr.R.Selvam, IAS, Executive Director CLE, Mr.P.R.Aqeel Ahmed, Chairman, CLE, Mr.Israar Ahmed, Regional Chairman South CLE, Mrs.Hema Maity, General Manager ITPO

Council For Leather Exports - CLE-ITPO Press Meet  on 34th India International Leather Fair & India Leather Week 2019

Chennai: 30th Jan, 2019: The Leather Industry holds a prominent place in the Indian economy. This sector is known for its consistency in high export earnings and it is among the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country.

Export Performance

The export of leather, leather products and footwear reached a value of USS$ 5739.93 million during 2017-18 as against USD 5646.79 million in 2016-17, registering a growth of 1.65% in Dollar Terms.

During this year too i.e. April-November 2018, export of leather, leather products and footwear reached Rs. 26, 101.51 crore, as against Rs.24,677.10 crore during April-November 2017, registering growth of 5.77% in Rupee Terms.

The Leather and Footwear Industry was able to penetrate several new markets including USA, Russia, Japan, Australia and Poland in the last 4 year period from 2014-2015 to 2017-18.

The industry has the potential to achive 9% to 10% annual growth in exports in the next two years.

Highlights of the leather, leather products and footwear industry. The leather industry is bestowed with an affluence of raw materials as India is endowed with 20% of world cattle and buffalo and 11% of world goat & sheep population. Added to this are the strengths of skilled manpower, innovative technology, increasing industry compliance to international environmental standards, and the dedicated support of the allied industries. The leather industry is an employment intensive sector, providing job to about 4.42 million people, mostly from the weaker sections of the society. Women employment is predominant in leather products sector withg about 30% shares.

India is 2^nd largest producer of footwear, 2^nd largest exporter of Leather Garments, 5^th largest exporter of Leather Goods and  3^rd Largest Exporter of Saddlery and Harness items.

Government support measures Govt. has identified Leather ass one of the Focus Sectors under Make in India and is implementation a number of support measures. These include lmplementation of special package for the leather industry. The package involves implementation of Central Sector Scheme Indian Footware, Leather and Accessories Development Programme (IFLADP) with an approved expenditure of Rs. 2600 Crore over the three financial years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The IFLADP consisted of sub-schemes namely (1) Human Resource Development (2) Mega Leather, Footwear and Accessories Cluster (3) Integrated Development of Leather Sector (IDLS) scheme (4) Leather Technology, Innovation and Environmental Issues (5) Establishment of Institutional Facilities (6) Promotion of Indian Brands in Leather, Footwear and Accessories Sector. (7) Additonal Employment Incentive for Leather, Footwear and Accessories Sector.

Implementation of IFLADP would lead to development of infrastructure for the leather sector, address environment concerns specific to the leather sector, facilitate additional investments, employment generation and increase in production. Enhanced Tax incentive would attract large scale investments in the sector. The Special Package has the potential to generate 3.24 lakhs new jobs in 3 years and assist in formalization of 2 lakh jobs as cumulative impact in Footwear, Leather & Accessories Sector.

Out of the outlay of Rs.2600 Crore under IFLADP scheme, activates have been assigned and /or proposals have been received to the extent of Rs.1300 Crore, ie 50% of the outlay have been received to the  extend of Rs.1300 Crore, ie 50% of the outlay have already been firmed up in the first year of implementation itself.

GST concessions : Reduction in GST rates for leather industry items – for finished leather from 12% to 5% for certain leather chemicals, leather goods, leather garments and saddler items from 28% to 18%, for CETPs from 18% to 12%, for job work form 18% to 5%. Also, the 5% concessional GST has been extended for footwear with Scale Price upto Rs. 1000/- The GST rate reductions have helped in enhancing the price competitive of the industry.

2% across the board enhancements of duty credit scrip under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) has been effected for finished leather, leather products and footwear sectors for shipments made from 1.11.2017. Enchancement of duty free limi9t for import of critical inputs by manufacturer exporters of fo0otwear and other leather products from 3% to 5% of FOB value of exports in the previous year, as announced in Union Budget 2017-18. These measures will enable Basic Customs duty exemption for import of critical inputs and machinery.