Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has said that the Government is working on formulating a new scheme to support the manufacturing of machinery required in the leather industry.
Addressing an event he said that India has the potential to become a world leader in footwear and leather sector with the efforts of both Government and the industry. He noted that the Indian industry has huge untapped potential. While the quality of products manufactured is good, more focus is required on packaging and branding to get better value for the product. Indian Mission across the world can help in providing support on this in terms of outreach and can help connect them with international companies engaged in branding business.
It is worth mentioning here that India has few good companies exporting leather garments to various countries.
The Minister said while most of the developed world, which are large consumers of leather products, are going through inflation and subdued consumer spending, he was happy to get reassurance from leather sector that it would see higher growth compared to last year.
He asked the leather industry to utilise the FTAs being signed by India with various countries to grow. He cited the example of UAE, where exports in the sector registered a jump of 64 percent in November last year as a result of the new agreement.
The Minister noted the concerns of the leather Industry about import duties on certain types of leather and assured that it will be taken up for consideration. He also urged the industry stakeholders to avail MOOWR scheme by Department of Revenue, wherein no duty is to be paid on goods which are being imported for the purpose of exports. This will certainly help make business more competitive, he added.
He urged the leather and footwear industry to aim for significant increase over the next 25 years and draw up a plan to achieve those goals. He asked them to look up at expanding horizons- explore new territories, manufacture new products in India for import substitution.
