Cash transaction limit to hit rural jewellery business

Govt also ignored industry's proposal to cut import duty on gold from abnormally high level of 10%

The gems and jewellery industry in India is disappointed with the Union Budget presented on Wednesday. While the government ignored the industry's proposal to cut import duty on gold from the abnormally high level of 10 per cent to make the effective duty levy of 13 per cent, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley imposed an upper limit on cash transactions at Rs 300,000.

Earlier, there was no such restriction on cash transactions earlier. But, jewellers were asked to charge 1 per cent of tax collection at source (TCS) for cash transactions above Rs 500,000. But, all transactions above Rs 200,000