The Indian Council for Leather Exports (CLE) has submitted some budget (2009-10) proposals to Indian government in order to persuade it to introduce new incentives for the leather industry. The budget is expected to be announced next month.

The proposals include some previously voiced requests, for example enhancing the limit of the Duty Free Import Scheme (DFIS) from 3% to 5% and making amendments to the list of current inputs contained in the DFIS. However, new petitions were also made including a demand to introduce zero-duty facilities, central excise exemption on footwear components, central excise/ countervailing duty exemption for leather machinery and equipment, an import duty reduction for spare machinery parts of machinery and central excise exemption on footwear including safety footwear with protective toe caps and leather products.