Spare us from excess advance, jewellers plead FM

The Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) today said it has requested Finance Minister P Chidambaran to restrain revenue officials from pressurising federation members to shell out advance tax based on past year's earnings.
"We have requested the Finance Minister to hold back the revenue officials from seeking enhanced advance tax payment from jewellers based on their earnings last fiscal and not this fiscal," federation's chairman Haresh Soni said in a statement.
The GJF represents over 6,00,000 members comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, labs, gemologists, designers and allied services among others.
"It is difficult to pay advance tax at the rate of our income last financial year since the overall business is down 20-40 per cent, hence we have appealed to the minister to consider advance tax payment on realistic figures as declared by member-assesses," Soni said.

He further said that the members are willingly to pay tax based on their declared income this year.
The government's gold control has resulted in lower than expected turnover and demand for additional tax advance payment has dented the morale of members.