“To enhance the productivity, quality and competitiveness of India’s footwear and leather sector, a focus product scheme will be implemented. The scheme will support design capacity, component manufacturing, and machinery required for production of non-leather quality footwear, besides the support for leather footwear and products,” she said.
The scheme is expected to facilitate employment for 22 lakh persons, generate turnover of 4 lakh crore and exports of over 1.1 lakh crore, she said.
On toys, the FM said that the government will implement a scheme to make India a global hub for toys which will build on the National Action Plan for toys. “The scheme will focus on development of clusters, skills, and a manufacturing ecosystem that will create high-quality, unique, innovative, and sustainable toys that will represent the ‘Made in India’ brand,” she said.
Exemption on BCD
Sitharaman also announced a full exemption on BCD (Basic Customs Duty) on wet blue leather to facilitate imports for domestic value addition and employment. “I also propose to exempt crust leather from 20 per cent export duty to facilitate exports by small tanners,” she said.
The announcement of the two schemes for toys and footwear & leather, does not necessarily mean that there won’t be a Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the two sectors as proposed earlier.
“There is never a full stop one way or the other. We will wait and see how various existing schemes (PLI) are successful and then accordingly come up with appropriate measures in other areas,” said Commerce & Industry Minister in response to a question on the fate of new PLI schemes.
