Indian duty proposals on the agenda at CLE meeting
Members of India’s Council for Leather Exports (CLE) met in Kanpur last week to decide the course of action to be taken with regard to the Government’s proposed 15% duty on finished leather exports.
At the meeting, it was decided that the matter should be taken up with Mr.Pranin Gupta, commerce secretary and that efforts should be made to convince him that the leather trade would not simply not be able to afford to pay the tariff, as businesses are already working on very slim margins.
The delegates said that if the government goes ahead with the proposal, it would have a devastating effect on exports, resulting in the loss of valuable revenue for the government. It was further agreed that the issue of reduced drawback payments should also be raised with the commerce secretary.
