Pakistan’s leather export revenues have fallen by 40% in five years
Recently elected chair of the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), Anjum Zafar, has called on the country’s prime minister, Imran Khan, to include finished leather on the list of products for which exporting companies can claim a refund of local taxes.
Moreover, PTA has argued that this should be back-dated to July 2018.
Pakistan runs a programme called DLTL, providing this tax relief to a number of exporting sectors, but leather has always been excluded.
Mr Zafar said that many tanneries in Pakistan have closed down and that the sector’s export revenues have declined by 40% in the last five years.
In fiscal year 2014-2015, leather’s export revenues reached $1.25 billion. In the most recently completed fiscal year, 2019-2020, this figure fell to $750 million.
