Footwear manufacturers in the State have sought more time to implement an order from the Bureau of Indian Standards for products to have BIS logos as they claim implementing the order in a hurry will spell doom for hundreds of small units.
| Photo Credit: H. VIBHU
Footwear makers in the State, employing around 50,000 people directly and thousands of others indirectly, have appealed to the government to give them more time to implement a recent order from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for products to adhere to BIS norms.
Footwear makers, numbering over 400 in the micro, small and medium range put together, welcomed the government move, meant to ensure quality and prevent cheap imports.
But the industry is of the view that implementing the order in a hurry, without sufficient preparation will trigger loss of thousands of jobs, spell doom for small and micro units, and end in loss of crores of rupees worth of raw materials and manufactured products.
According to the BIS order, 24 footwear items should adhere to the norms by July 1, 2023. Henceforth a BIS licence will be mandatory for manufacturing, importing, or selling of products under the quality control orders. For some other items, time has been provided up to January 1, 2024 for the norms to be implemented.
Kerala State Small Industries Association president A. Nizaruddin said the situation would lead to a major crisis in the sector, bringing it to a standstill.
V.K.C. Razak of Footwear Manufacturers’ Association said the manufacturers were only happy to adhere to quality norms but implementing them from July 1 for a large number of products was not practical. He pointed out that footwear-making was the second-largest employment provider in the country. Around 75% of units are in the unorganised sector without the financial muscle.
In a recent letter to the authorities, footwear makers said the sector was set to provide employment to around six million people by 2030. India produces at least three billion pairs of footwear a year, and it is likely to go up to six billion by 2030.
Footwear makers pointed out that products occupied retail shelves for a long time, making it impossible to take them back at short notice. They also feel that BIS has not provided sufficient width for the range of products in terms of the multiple raw materials that go into production. There are products that cost between ₹100 and ₹10,000. The entire range is being covered under one standard now.
They appealed that micro-units may be completely exempted from the implementation of BIS norms. For small-scale units the implementation may be postponed for a minimum of two years, effective from January 1, 2026, and for medium-scale units the implementation may be postponed by minimum one year.
They also said that taking back the product already sold from the market may not be a practical solution as most of the companies work on a distribution channel and there are unsold products with manufacturers.