Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday introduced the ambitious blueprint for the shoe and leather industry in the budget. It has focused on such schemes, which will pave the way for 4 lakh crore turnover and 1.1 lakh crore targeted exports with 22 lakh jobs in this area. The move aims at the non-flesh footwear brand like Nike, Adidas, Puma, New Balance and Rebock, already dominated India’s manufacturing sector under the China-Plus-One Policy.
Sitharaman said in his budget speech, ‘A product -based scheme will be introduced to increase productivity, quality and competition in the country’s footwear and leather industry. This scheme will be helpful in increasing design capacity and procurement of component manufacturing and machinery purchased for the production of non -leather quality shoes. It will also encourage the manufacture of leather shoes and other products. With the implementation of this scheme, there is a possibility of getting employment to 22 lakh people in the country, the export of 1.1 lakh crores will be accelerated with a turnover of 4 lakh crores in this area.
Apart from this, Finance Minister Sitharaman has given a complete discount in customs duty on wet blue leather so that its imports can be easily made help to meet domestic demand and increase employment. In order to facilitate the export for small tanners (tanners), he has announced a 20 percent discount in export duty on crust leather (skins).
N Mohan, director and CEO (footwear business) of Kothari Industrial Corporation, said, “These measures being taken by the government in the budget will attract global companies in this employment -oriented sector to invest money.”