Jewellers continue strike CBEC chief offers talks

Even as jewellers continued with their country-wide strike for the eighth day demanding their exclusion from the proposed excise duty, a top Finance Ministry official today assured them of further talks to remove their "misunderstandings".

“They have to pay only 30 paise duty on a Rs 100 transaction. That is 0.3 per cent duty,” Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman S K Goel said on the sidelines of a Ficci conference here.

The jewellers, who are protesting against budgetary provision to levy excise duty of one per cent on 30 per cent of the transaction value, staged a sit-in here as part of their strike which began a day after the Budget presentation.

“We don't want to come under the excise net as it would be difficult for small jewellers to comply with the complexities of this duty...This will be a throwback to inspector raj,” Mumbai Wholesale Gold Jewellers Association President, Vinod Jain, said. However, Goel said levying of the duty, to be implemented from the next financial year, will not be a big issue for the jewellers, especially on the book-keeping front.

“They are already paying value-added tax (VAT), so they will not have to maintain any new records. We are talking with them to clear their misunderstandings,” he said.

The jewellers, however, said they will continue with their stir at least till Monday while further course of action will depend on the outcome of a meeting they have scheduled with the Finance Secretary on the same day.

“The government has assured us of no harassment, but it is all verbal,” Jain added. The association is also demanding a rollback of increase in customs duty on gold imports to four per cent from the earlier two per cent.