The Ministry of Industry has extended the registration period under the machinery up-gradation programme for the leather and footwear sector to enable more companies to take advantage of the scheme.
Under the scheme, a manufacturer gets a 10 percent subsidy from the government for replacing old machinery and equipment which is more than 15 years old with new machinery, the cost of which should not be less than Rp 250 million.
As of end of August, about 30 footwear manufacturers and one leather tanner had applied for the subsidies totaling to Rp 20.45 billion, in order to purchase Rp 204.55 billion worth of new machines.
The Director of Miscellaneous Industries in the Ministry, Budi Irmawan, said that the low response was due to the fact that the scheme was fairly new and companies were also wary of making new investments due to recessionary trends.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India