Following the hike in GST on shoes, the entire footwear industry in Agra went on an indefinite strike on Wednesday, taking out a protest march on the Mahatma Gandhi road.

They sent a memorandum to the Agra District Magistrate highlighting the demands of the footwear industry.

Agra's footwear industry is considered to be the largest footwear industry in Asia. Over 60 per cent of people in Agra are connected to this business.

However, following the increase of GST on shoes priced below Rs 1,000 from 5 per cent to 12 per cent, the local businesses are in an uproar.

Shoe Factors Federation President Gagan Das Ramani told India Today that they strongly oppose this unjustified raise in GST on shoes selling below the price of Rs 1,000 and demand that this hike be reverted to 5%. The Agra Shoe Factors Federation has sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Modi, seeking his intervention.

According to the information available with India Today, the Federation has requested the Prime Minister to save the footwear industry of Agra, which has been selected under the "One District One Product" (ODOP) scheme.

Amir Qureshi, a footwear businessman, said, “Footwear is the main business of Agra that provides livelihood to lakhs of local residents. These people had been suffering a great deal through the past two years due to covid and now with the GST being raised to 12%, they will suffer serious business loss and the Chinese shoes will become cheaper instead of Indian shoes. Also, the higher tax rates will mean a lot of business will be conducted without proper billing.”

Meanwhile, Agra Shoe Manufacturers Association President Upendra Singh Lovely said, “The biggest detrimental effect of raising the GST on footwear will be that the traders who were issuing tax invoices, will again go back to unrecorded cash memos, which will result in revenue loss to the government.”

He further added that the shoes being imported from China are exempted from the GST hike, which will make the Indian shoes lag in competition with the Chinese shoes.

Jitendra Trilokani, who is also connected to the footwear industry, said that the industry was confident that the tax would not rise on footwear, but while the GST council decided to postpone the raise on garments, it left the footwear industry to fend for itself. This hike in GST will badly affect the footwear industry. The GST hike will result in a drop in sales and credit will increase.