Leather stocks rally; govt to beef up boosters for industry

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Shares of leather-related stocks are on buyers' radar Wednesday hoping for government booster plans for the industry. The government is working on a package of both fiscal and non-fiscal measures for leather and non-leather footwear sector. Shares like Bata India, Liberty Shoes, Mirza International, Relaxo Footwear and Super Tannery are up 3-11 percent.The incentives will be broadly on the lines of recently announced package for the textiles sector. Leather is a focus area under the 'Make in India' initiative.

"This is an important sector which is highly labour intensive. The Commerce and Industry Ministry is working on an incentive package for leather and non-leather footwear sector on the lines of the package recently announced for the textiles sector," an official said.

The package may include reduction in excise duty, labour law relaxations and skill training for the sector. The ministry has already given a presentation to the Finance Ministry about the benefits.

Currently excise duty on leather footwears worth over Rs 1,000 is 6 per cent, whereas for non-leather it is 12.5 per cent. In the total footwear industry, 90-95 percent is non-leather. High excise duty on non-leather is impacting the manufacturing and if you want to create jobs and boost exports, there is a need to reduce this duty, the official added.

Leather exports have recorded negative growth in May.

The government last month approved Rs 6,000 crore special package for textiles & apparel sector to create one crore new jobs in three years and attract investments of USD 11 billion. The measures approved include additional incentives for duty drawback scheme for garments, flexibility in labour laws to increase productivity as well as tax and production incentives for job creation in garment manufacturing.

(With inputs from PTI)