CLE urges government to extend PLI scheme to leather goods sector

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Sep 21, 2021

The Council for Leather Exports has requested the central government to help boost exports in the sector by extending the production-linked incentive scheme to cover leather, footwear, and leather goods.

“I would request that the scheme may kindly be extended to the leather, leather products and footwear sector,” wrote CLE chairman, Sanjay Leekha, in a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Press Trust of India reported.

The PLI scheme currently covers 13 sectors including textiles, steel, and pharmaceuticals among others. The scheme’s aim is to make domestically manufactured products competitive in the global market and boost India’s exports as well as creating significant employment opportunities across the country.

The CLE has asked for the incentives for companies, which include financial incentives, to be extended to the leather goods industry to help businesses to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic and expand globally. 
 
In his letter, Leekha also requested that the government extend the emergency credit line guarantee scheme (ECLGS 2.0) to the leather goods sector to further help businesses to recover from Covid-19 and the national lockdowns. Although the ECLGS 1.0 scheme is available to micro, small, and medium enterprises in the leather goods sector, Leekha has requested that it be extended to all leather goods businesses and include ECLGS 2.0. 
 
“As our sector suffered immense export losses due to Covid, there is a need to provide additional credit at lower interest rates,” said Leekha.