Manchester of the East gets new status,industry gets a boost

The city exported goods worth Rs 5,000 crore in the financial year 2008-09. The leather industry alone contributed a huge amount to the export figures — Rs 3,500 crore,followed by tea industry — Rs 400 crore,machine sector — Rs 250 crore,plastic — Rs 150 crore and other industries make up to the tune of Rs 200 crore.

Kanpur has more than 300 units involved in the manufacturing of leather products,which are exported and also sold within the local market.

The Chairman of Leather Export Council (North),R K Jalan,said: “The ministry provides this status only to those cities which have,despite adverse conditions,excelled in the field of export.”

According to Jalan,despite the global recession and poor basic infrastructure,the leather export has gone up by seven per cent in the last financial year.

With this status,the city will now get a leather designer studio,upgradation of leather testing laboratory,improvement of the basic infrastructure in industrial areas and duty-free import of 50 samples as against 15 earlier.

Beside these facilities,there will be no duty on setting up common Effluent Treatment Plant, introduction of a Data Interface Scheme to verify the licence of exporters,tax rebate on import of raw material and increase in duty credit for exporters from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent under the Focus Market scheme. The relaxation in custom duty and the increase in incentives in the scheme will boost the morale of the city exporters,said Jalan.

Previously,the licence verification of the leather exporters would take around four to five days. “To solve this problem,the new Foreign Trade Policy has introduced Electronic Data Interface scheme,under which the Custom Department and Ministry of Commerce and Industry will share the information about leather exporters through a shared server,” he added.

According to the Divisional Chairman of Indian Industries Association,Sunil Vaishya,if basic infrastructure is provided to the industrialists,the export figures will cross the Rs 10,000 crore mark by December 2011.

“Poor transportation,deplorable condition of roads,delay in availability of raw material and erratic power supply are among the prominent problems faced by the exporters,” said Vaishya.

“There are several more industrial units in Kanpur which are capable of exporting products,and the rebates and incentives announced by the Centre will definitely increase the export from the city,” said Micky Manchanda,Chairman of Provincial Industries Association.