Aero Club, makers of the Woodland brand of shoes, has welcomed the change in excise duty reduction in leather-upper based footwear in Budget 2015.
The Budget has reduced the excise duty for the leather-upper-based footwear priced upwards of Rs 1,000.
According to Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Aero Club (Woodland Shoes), “The notification directly impacts us and our kind of product offerings. However, we were anticipating full reduction in-line with the Make-in-India campaign.”
Singh, even welcomed the reduction of corporate tax, but was apprehensive of the increase in service tax, and its impact on key operations such as manufacturing and retailing.
“Retail as a sector has huge operational costs. including high-rentals. and this seems to be the concern area. Probably, the futuristic notification of implementation of GST from April 1 next year would negate that. But at the current moment, increase in service tax in indeed an unwelcome cost,” he said.