CLE India confident of achieving $5.88 bn leather exports in FY22

Voicing the concerns of the members of the organisation, Sanjay Leekha, chairman of CLE, said in a statement, “Exporter members feel that non availability of the liquidity is the major concerns as of now which may be immediately corrected by releasing exporters due funds in the shape of last year's MEIS and this year's RODTEP. Similarly, this year’s All Industry Rates of Drawback should be immediately revised of Chapter 41, 42, 43 and 64 to compensate the duties imposed on wet blue, crust and finished leather as well as embellishments used in production.”

Considering the need to ensure sustainable growth and development of the industry both at the domestic and export front and to attract investments, the organisation has also requested the government of India to extend the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) to the leather and footwear sector.

Talking about PM’s virtual address to the exporters for the roadmap to achieve $400 billion merchandise exports in the FY 2021-22, chairman Leekha said that the leather and footwear sector is fully committed to achieving the target.

The leather and footwear industry is a labour-intensive sector, providing employment to 45 lakh people, 45 per cent of whom are women. The sector has a total turnover of $17.09 billion, which includes exports of $5.09 billion and domestic industry turnover of $12 billion during 2019-20. The sector aims to achieve domestic turnover of $20 billion and export turnover of $10 billion in 5 years.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)