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 domestic garment manufacturers.
Huge quantities of garment leather are lying with tanners, creating a cash liquidity problem, and they want to discourage further imports. Garment leather can be found at up to 30% discount (against last year) compared with raw materials for shoes, lining, upholstery, bags etc.
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. Pakistan’s competitor countries such as 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 as last year with only a 3% decline as opposed to the 30-35% claimed. Exports of leather garments have fallen drastically in competitor countries by as much as 30%, due to a lack of demand in Europe and America, so Pakistani leather garment manufacturers have done much better in maintaining their export figures from the previous year.
