May 14, 2026 (MLN): Pakistan’s leather industry is
facing mounting structural challenges that are hampering its export
competitiveness, with stakeholders pointing to high production costs,
fragmented compliance requirements, heavy taxation, and limited market access
as key barriers holding back a sector with significant untapped potential.
Despite the country’s strong livestock base and established
manufacturing expertise across leather garments, gloves, footwear, and
handbags, industry representatives say the sector continues to struggle under
the weight of overlapping regulatory and financial burdens, according to a
press release issued.
These concerns were formally raised in a consultative
meeting between Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and leather
industry representatives, where delegates presented a range of challenges and
reform proposals aimed at strengthening the sector’s growth and export
potential.
Industry delegates called for a simplified, harmonized
compliance framework and a single-window taxation channel to reduce the
regulatory burden imposed by overlapping federal, provincial, and municipal
authorities.
Representatives flagged that multiple inspections,
certifications, and approvals were adding to operational inefficiencies and
eroding export margins.
Stakeholders also pointed to difficulties in import
financing and high duties on industrial raw materials as key factors
undermining the sector’s ability to compete in international markets.
Preliminary budget proposals shared during the meeting
included tariff rationalization, duty adjustments on raw materials, and
targeted tax relief for export-oriented manufacturing units.
Minister Jam Kamal Khan acknowledged the concerns raised and
emphasized that boosting export competitiveness would require both immediate
facilitation measures and long-term structural reforms.
He reaffirmed the Ministry of Commerce’s commitment to
sustained engagement with industry stakeholders, with the meeting concluding on
a note of continued public-private collaboration to unlock the leather sector’s
full export potential.
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