The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) organized an Open House Meet with Dr. Anup Wadhawan, IAS, Secretary, Department of Commerce in Chennai on October 22, 2018. Various issues concerning Foreign Trade Policy, GST etc., were raised in this meeting.I had the opportunity to represent CLE in this Open House Meet and take-up issues concerning the industry.
While thanking the Government for implementing the IFLADP scheme for the leather and footwear sector, I highlighted the decline in exports from the leather industry due to global trade scenario and competition and request for consideration of three major issues namely a) implementation of Scheme of Rebate of State Levies (ROSL) and Embedded / Blocked Input Tax Credit under GST for Leather and Footwear Sector and also charges incurred on certification and testing etc., b) Removal of animal quarantine clearance for import of finished and crust leathers into India as no such quarantine certificate is asked in 50 countries to which India is exporting finished leather and c) request to enhance duty free entitlement for leather garments from 3% to 5% of FOB value of exports in the previous year, as such enhancement has already been done for other leather products and footwear in Union Budget 2017-18.
I hope that consideration of the above requests will help in enhancing our price competitiveness and in achieving the envisaged annual export growth of 8% to 9% per annum.