On June 14, 2023, the Union Minister Piyush Goyal, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) interacted with the representatives from the Indian Footwear Industry in New Delhi, Delhi, and decided to implement ‘Footwear Made from Leather and Other Materials (Quality Control) Order, 2022’ on 24 footwear products (those made with rubber and polymeric material and other components) from July 1, 2023.
- It was also decided not to extend the deadline for complying with the mandatory quality standards and included Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the ambit of the Quality Control Order (QCO). MSMEs were earlier exempt from QCO.
- Now, footwear manufacturers have to modify their processes to comply with the new standards. This includes establishing testing laboratories, obtaining Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) licences, and adhering to the rules for issuing the ISI (Indian Standards Institute) mark.
QCOs will help in increasing the production of quality footwear, and exports and establishing Indian brands in the global markets.
Key Points:
i. For 5 standards which have been revised recently, it was also decided to give six more months time to small industries (annual turnover less than Rs 50 crore and investment of Rs 10 crore) for complying with the order and accordingly, it will come into force from January 1, 2024.
ii.Micro units (with an annual turnover of less than Rs 5 crore) will get an additional year and should follow the new norms from July 1, 2024.
iii.BIS will reduce the Testing Charges for the footwear products under the QCOs by 80% for the government-recognized start-ups and micro units, having less than Rs 5 crore turnover.
iv.In the leather and footwear sector, the government issued three mandatory quality orders on October 27, 2020. Out of these three, one on protective footwear was already implemented from January 2022 and the remaining would come into force from July 1, 2023.
Key People:
Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), MoCI, and Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, BIS, among others, took part in the interaction.
Additional info:
i.As per the statement of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, India is the second largest footwear manufacturer in the world with 9% of the annual global production.
ii.More than 10,000 manufacturing units and about 1.5 lakh footwear traders spread all over India are engaging more than 30 lakh people in manufacturing or trading activities and nearly 85% of the manufacturers are small-scale in nature.
Note – Earlier the DPIIT, rolled out the Quality Control Orders for a host of goods such as toys, household refrigerating appliances, certain steel and cable items, toys, and bicycles’ retro-reflective devices.
Recent Related News:
i.On 31st March 2023, The Ministry of Commerce and Industry(MoC&I), Government of India(GoI), released the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023 which aims to increase India’s exports to USD 2 trillion by 2030 by shifting from incentives to remission and entitlement based regime.
ii.Indian industry to work with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to formulate standards for products which are presently not covered under these standards, so that these can also be brought under QCOs after 6 months of the notification of these standards.
About Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I):
Union Minister– Piyush Goyal (Rajya Sabha- Maharashtra)
Minister of State (MoS)– Som Parkash (Constituency- Hoshiarpur, Punjab) and Anupriya Patel (Constituency-Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh)
