Jewellers extend strike indefinitely as demand unmet

IBJA says will continue to hold peaceful dharna till govt assures a rollback of 1% excise duty on jewellery

Fed up with requests for excise duty exemption on jewellery falling on deaf ears, ornaments manufacturer and retailers have extended their strike indefinitely.

Representatives of various jewellery associations including India Bullion and Jewellery Association (IBJA) and All Indian Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) claimed to have met with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and all other ministers concerned in addition to a number of bureaucrats of various ministries in the last one week with a request to exempt jewellery from 1% excise duty. But, their requests have not been received by the government seriously.

In fact, a request letter written by the Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari addressing to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard was also ignored by the Ministry of Finance. It is, however, unclear whether the Prime Minister has directed the Finance Minister to the proposal of 1% excise levy.

While presenting the Union Budget 2016-17, Jaitley proposed 1% excise levy on jewellers which irked manufacturers and retailers. After announcement made to the excise duty levy on February 29, jewellers convened meetings of their regional representatives and decided to go on strike initially for three days beginning March 2 which was later extended till March 7. Now, the same has been again extended indefinitely.

"Jewellery Association representatives from all States in India unanimously decided to continue the strike till further notice to protest against the imposition of excise duty that will negatively impact a large number of manufacturers, artisans and craftsmen. The Excise guidelines, which have been drafted for the Gems & Jewellery are not practically implementable and will be detrimental to the survival of the industry. We urge the Government to withdraw the proposal to impose excise duty till there is proper dialogue and discussion on the subject. Our protest continues till the Government takes cognizance of our views and acts favourably," said G V Sreedhar, Chairman, GJF.

Jewellers recently held discussions with Jaitley wherein the latter expressed concern over bullion trade, which resulted in increasing gold imports that has encourages current account deficit (CAD) issue. On this concern, all jewellers have proactively and voluntarily decided to stop selling bullion to consumers.

Jewellers offered 1% increase in import duty instead of excise levy to the similar tune which according to jewellers would yield higher tax collections. Import duty on gold currently stands at 10%.

Meanwhile, bullion dealers body IBJA has declared "dharna" for full day until an assurance is received from the government for a rollback in excise levy.

"We will sit on a peaceful dharna throughout the day till the government announces a rollback in excise duty. We are not against the government but, against the excise duty which would lead to inspector raj," said Surendra Mehta, Secretary, IBJA. Earlier in 2012, similar proposal was announced but was rolled back after intensified industry wide protest.