PTA request 25% duty on finished leather imports

The Chairman of the Pakistan Tanners Association, S M Naseem, has asked the Ministry of Commerce & Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to impose a 25% duty on import of finished leather as tanners are not getting orders from garment manufacturers due to lack of demand because of seasonal changes as well as changes in trends/fashion. Huge quantities of garment leather are lying with tanners disturbing them due to a cash liquidity problem. Garment leather is available even at 30% reduced prices (as compared with last year) compared with raw materials for shoes, lining, upholstery, bags etc. Leather garment manufacturers are not lifting all the raw materials which are suitable for making garments. All the hides and skins suitable for garment manufacturing are purchased by garment manufacturers even at the raw and wet-blue stage. Keeping this in view, the PTA have urged the Government to impose a 25% import duty on finished leather to discourage further imports. Many developed countries producing other leathergoods have imposed duty on imports of finished leather in their own countries. The PTA Chairman has again drawn the attention of the government towards the negative impact of the proposal of the garment manufacturers' association for the imposition of a 20% export duty on finished leather, Naseem said. It is also to be noted that Pakistan's competitor countries like China, India and Türkiye have also not imposed any duty or restriction on the export of finished leather from their countries. In real terms, leather garment exports from Pakistan are almost the same and only a 3% decline is observed and not 30-35% as wrongly stated by other organisations. Exports of leather garments have fallen drastically in other countries like China, India and Türkiye by 30% due to a lack of demand in Europe and America. It is appreciated that Pakistan leather garment manufacturers are much better in maintaining their export figures from the previous year. Tanners have also requested the CBR increase duty drawback rates for leather exports by at least 3% as duty drawback rates for leather garments have been revised upwards. It is to be noted that leather garment manufacturers get double benefits as they use basic component 'leather' for making their articles and the benefit of duty drawback applicable to leather at different rates are also availed by them by exporting leather garments.