Sonia Gandhi’s legacy Boost leather sector
This refers to “Opportunistic? Or plain ingenious?” by Aditi Phadnis (December 16). As its long-time president, Sonia Gandhi alone is responsible for the survival, rise and downfall of the Congress party. She was a reluctant entrant to Indian politics but proved to be a quick learner. After initial setbacks she brought her party back to power in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and repeated the success in 2009. However, she made three judgmental errors which led to her party’s eclipse in 2014.
She rewarded personal loyalty instead of competence in putting people in key positions including prime minister, ministers holding strategic portfolios and bureaucrats. This resulted in the inefficiency of administration. Besides, unlike perceptive leaders who select their trusted team and let them act on their own to deliver assigned results, she and her son kept interfering with the working of her government every now and then, giving little scope to the prime minister to utilise his vast expertise. The National Advisory Council created by her as a super cabinet of her own functioned less as a facilitator and more as a speed breaker to the prime minister’s expertise in economy management.
Thirdly, her neglect of rampart corruption involving her ministers, alliance partners and government servants downwards tarnished her party’s image beyond repairs. Scams in 2G spectrum and coal mine allotment, bribery in execution of the Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme and leakages in the public distribution system undid all the good steps her government had taken. Clinging to power at any cost seemed to be her policy.
Now she has decided to pass the baton to her son at a time of unprecedented crisis in the party’s history, even when he has so far demonstrated least capacity to face the challenge, losing state Assembly elections one after another. Whether this move also is an error of judgement will be known soon.
Y G Chouksey Pune With reference to “~2,600- cr sops to boost leather jobs” (December 16), finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel for the starving labour-intensive leather sector. The package will help small and medium entrepreneurs to tide over the crisis caused by demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST)-inflated taxes on raw materials used in leather tanning and finishing.
Leather exports from India is sluggish, so a lot more policy measures are needed for a revival. Most leather product exporting units demand finished hides and skins at competitive prices to increase exports. There are two types of tanning — vegetable/wattle extracts tanning and chrome tanning (using chrome sulphate) which is a pollutant. The government should promote nonpollutant vegetable tanning extracts, namely mimosa (wattle extracts) which is imported as there is no production facility in India. The only two units producing wattle extracts, located in Tamil Nadu, have been out of production ever since basic import duty on the raw material of wattle bark was hiked to an abnormal 30 per cent from zero. The high import duty should be scrapped and the duty structure should be rationalised. This would help set up wattle extracts manufacturing units.
Further, dried wattle bark too can be used for tanning the leather, which can revive several sick tanning units in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. The raw material is available in abundance at rock-bottom prices in East Africa and South America. If measures are taken to utilise this material, it could result in foreign exchange savings to the tune of $22 million annually, besides increasing overall exports of leather products, and generating employment to a large number of skilled and unskilled workers in the leather hubs of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. A rationalised duty structure will enable exporters to compete with countries such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh which are enjoying competitive advantages because of zero import duties on all raw materials in this sector. The manufacturing units can also facilitate production of Myrobolan extracts and further assist its exports since India is a major producer.
A Sathyanarayana New Delhi