Jewellers called off an 18-day strike on Saturday, hours after the finance ministry said a rule imposing 1% excise duty on the sector that they were protesting against will not apply to artisans and job workers.
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Vadra, who has met representatives of All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, said “If the roll back has not been entertained, in that case the federation is simply wanting to allow the trade to pay excise duty of 1% or equivalent amount of Value-Added Tax paid (whichever is lower), to the Centre through the Excise Department, but based on the Value-Added Tax, so that the government does not suffer on revenues proposed”. “The finance minister has assured us that there will be no “inspector raj”,” said GJF chairman Sreedhar. A report in The Economic Times estimates that the industry has incurred losses worth Rs 18,000 crore and the government about Rs 2000 crore on account of the strike.
Excise officials will not visit shops, residences and manufacturing units to cross-check vouchers and will not arrest or proceed with criminal prosecution against jewellers, he says.
Talking to media, Mohit Kamboj, president of India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) said, “We have called off strike”.
Meanwhile, a three-member committee has been set up to look into issues of jewellers and it would submit a report to the government within two months.
Jewellers from the world’s second-biggest gold consumer went on an indefinite strike from the start of March after government reintroduced a 1-percent excise duty on gold jewellery after four years.
The jewellers across India had started strike before eighteen days had now rolled back the strike on Saturday. As per the new revision, jewellers having an annual turnover over Rs 12 crore will be eligible for paying tax duty while those having turnover below Rs 6 crore in the previous fiscal will be eligible for exemptions up to Rs 50 lakh during March 2016.
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The latest Indian customs data show that gold imports in February at 23.8 tonnes were the lowest on record.
