Bahadurgarh footwear industry, known as the biggest hub of footwear in North India has suffered heavy loss worth crores of rupees following around 25 per cent decline in the sales of footwear as compared to the previous years as claimed by Raj Kumar Gupta president of the Footwear Park Association.Bahadurgarh who said a tough competition with footwears manufactured in China and a considerable rise in the goods and services tax (GST) are believed to be main reasons behind the fall in sales. of Bahadurgarh footwear industry.  He said, over 25 lakh pairs of shoes, sandals and slippers are manufactured in the industry here every day and a huge stock of shoes has remained unsold in THE past one year due to slup in sale, forcing manufacturers to sell these at throwaway prices.

The president of Bahadurgarh Chamber and Commerce and industry Subhash Jagga said that there are over 2,000 large, medium and small-scale units associated with the footwear industry directly or indirectly operational in Modern Industrial Estate, the HSIIDC Footwear Park and surrounding areas in Bahadurgarh town located on the border of Haryana and Delhi, while over two lakh people are employed in these manufacturing units having total estimated annual turnover of the Bahadurgarh Footwear industry around Rs 20,000 crore and more than 50 per cent comes in the winter season from October to February. Information reveals that in case of the poor lifting of stocks during the  coming winter season there is possibility that nearly 50 manufacturing units in the town may turn completely sick, said Narendra Chhikara,senior vice-president of the Footwear Park Association, Bahadurgarh.

Chhikara maintained that for the winter season, the footwear production usually started in July and continued for the next three months for fulfill the huge demand from October to February. Hr disclosed that nearly 50% manufacturing units are running at their 50% manufacturing capacity this year due to limited demand. He said fashion and design play a vital role in the sale of footwear as customers do not like out-of-fashion footwear. A huge stock of shoes has remained unsold in past few months due to Ukrain-Russia war when Bahadurgarh footwear industry failed to get export orders from Russia, USA and other Europran countries this year as compared to the previous years, thus forced manufacturers to sell these at throwaway prices in order to get whatever they can from these stocks. Rising inflation is also another vital factor, which makes the customers spend on footwear thoughtfully. Chhikara said, the GST was raised from 5 to 12 per cent on the footwear having price less than Rs 1,000 per pair, leading to a considerable rise in the rates as such high prices also took a toll on the sales so the Bahadurgarh footwear manufacturers demand the government to roll back the hike in the GST immediately.

Meanwhile, the Development Commissioner and Additional Secretray Ministry of MSME Dr. Rajnish said that necessary steps are being taken to boost Bahadurgarh footwear industry and a National level trade fair has also been organized at Bahadurgarh Footwear Cluster recently expecting good results.  Dr Rajnish while having a meeting with the entrepreneurs of Bahadurgarh footwear industry assured them full assistance enabling ithe ndustry to face the challange and compete with the footwear industry in China. Dr. Rajnish said that la large number of display exhibitions are being organized by the MSME in future in which Bahadurgarh footwear manufacturers should participate by putting their stalls in these exhibitions.  He said, schemes are being introduced for the welfare of footwear manufacturers to promote footwear industry across the world, enabling to compete with the footwear industry in China.