News on Agra & Current Affairs

Vishal Sharma   Domestic traders are opposing the 12.5 per cent VAT imposed on leather footwear.    New Delhi/Agra        Even as the footwear exporters of Agra are rejoicing at possible Italian investment in the leather footwear sector of the town, domestic footwear traders in Agra have gone on an indefinite strike from Tuesday against the 12.5 percent value added tax (VAT) proposed by the Uttar Pradesh government on leather footwear.   The strike, which encompasses almost 650 different bulk traders of footwear in the Shoe Market of Agra, is expected to cause a loss of about Rs 1 crore per day to the town's footwear trade while seriously affecting the manufacturer-trader supply chain that thrives on the daily sale volumes.   According to Rajkumar Sama, president, Agra Shoe Factors Federation (ASFF), a recent decision by the state government to bring VAT into effect in the state from December 1 has shocked the footwear industry of the town, which caters to almost 8

VISHAL SHARMA New Delhi/ Agra.                        Having failed to draw the UP government's attention towards the pending development projects worth around Rs 60 crore for manufacturing footwear components, the Agra footwear industry is now looking at collaborating with the local foundry industry to develop ancillary units for manufacturing components like rivets, buckles, and sole dies most of which are currently imported at high cost.   Talking to Business Standard, Haji Rasheedo, owner of a small-scale footwear manufacturing unit in the Mantola area of the town, said currently the sole-dies had to be imported from China as attempts to produce quality sole-dies locally had not succeeded till date.   He said some footwear sole manufacturers, who were unable to import the sole-dies from China, were buying them from some selected die manufacturers in Mumbai. But either way, the cost of importing a die was so high that changing sole patterns frequently could not b

VISHAL SHARMA New Delhi/ Agra.         At a time when the bicycle industry of the country is growing at almost 10 per cent annually, the export of Indian bicycles has dropped to almost half the previous year's tally owing to a huge increase in steel prices in the past three months and an unstable dollar.   For the industry that exports almost Rs 1,000 crore worth of its production, the rising steel prices have caused a tremendous drop in exports, which are presently pegged at just around Rs 423 crore.   The bicycle manufacturers of the country held a bicycle trade fair in Agra last week. The spokesperson of the United Cycle & Parts Manufacturers Association, KK Seth, said the production of steel was being monopolised by a select group of companies in India who were manipulating steel prices.   In the past three months, the steel prices had shot up by Rs 3,000 per metric tonne and now the companies were again preparing to raise prices citing international market