The measures announced by the government to push economic growth will help attract investments and boost exports of India’s leather sector, according to Council for Leather Exports (CLE) chairman PR Aqeel Ahmed, who recently said the leather, leather products and footwear sector is currently facing several challenges in the global market. Exports in the sector declined by 4.90 per cent during April–June 2019, primarily due to reduction in exports to the major market Europe, accounting for about 53 per cent of exports, Ahmed told a news agency. He said the announcement to amend definition of MSMEs will further increase their concentration in leather and footwear industry and will facilitate more companies to avail government support measures. The decision to clear pending goods and services tax refunds to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within 30 days, timely passing on rate-cuts by banks and additional credit expansion through Public Sector Banks, will immensely help in overcoming the liquidity problems, he said. Considering the opportunities offered by the US-China trade conflict, the domestic leather industry is looking to register an overall export growth of 5 per cent this fiscal, he added.
