Leather and footwear exports to touch 5.88 billion dollars in FY 2021-22: CLE

New Delhi, Aug 11 (KNN) The Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has said that the country's leather and footwear exports are expected to touch 5.88 billion dollars in the current financial year.

''The ministry of Commerce & Industry has set up a reasonable target of 5.88 billion dollars for the leather & footwear export sector and CLE is confident to achieve the target comfortably by the end of FY 2021-22,'' it said Sanjay Leekha, Chairman CLE in a statement on Saturday.

He also added that the sector has the potential to reach a total turnover of 30 billion dollars in next five years, which includes domestic turnover of 20 billion dollars and export turnover of 10 billion dollars and generate additional employment for 15 lakh more people.

CLE further requested the government to extend the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for the leather and footwear sector.

He urged the government to release pending refunds under Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) as non-availability of liquidity is a major concern for exporters as of now.

Similarly, this year all industry rates of drawback should be immediately revised of Chapter 41, 42, 43 & 64 to compensate for the duties imposed on wet blue, crust, and finished leather as well as embellishments used in production, he said.

Sanjay Leekha further informed that the leather and footwear industry is a labour intensive sector, providing employment to 45 lakh people, 45 per cent of whom are women. The sector has a total turnover of 17.09 billion dollars, which includes exports of 5.09 billion dollars and domestic industry turnover of 12 billion dollars during 2019-20.

''The sector has the potential to reach a total turnover of 30 billion dollars in next five years, which includes domestic turnover of 20 billion dollars and export turnover of 10 billion dollars and generate additional employment for 15 lakh more people,'' he added.