Union Budget 2014: Sole-seekers set to foot a lower bill

The priced pair of leather footwear you eye is set to get cheaper, with the finance minister Arun Jaitley reducing excise duties on footwear priced between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from 12% to 6%.
The industry which normally increases prices every August will give that a miss and stick to current prices or even reduce it. “While it isn't certain if there will be a direct reduction in MRP on footwear, this move will help companies avoid price hikes as it will help us absorb increasing costs on raw material, manufacturing, power, etc,” said Anupam Bhansal, executive director of Liberty Group.
India is currently the world’s second largest manufacturer of leather footwear after China with the capacity to make 2065 million pairs a year, and this will boost manufacturing of footwear in small units across the country. “It will benefit the domestic market and increase domestic consumption of leather footwear. While it won’t directly impact exports, it will help Indian leather footwear makers compete with Chinese products in the sub-Rs 1000 a pair segment,” said Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman of footwear maker Farida Group, and a former chairman of the Council for Leather Exports.
The move will also bring competition between the branded players like Bata, Khadims or Liberty on a level playing field with unorganized players who constitute about 85% of the footwear market in India. “In terms of volumes, the largest chunk of our sales comes from the sub Rs 1000 crore segment, and with the prices of those products coming down, it will bring about parity between branded products like ours where prices are regulated and uniform and prices of footwear sold in the unorganized sector,” Bhansal said.