NEW DELHI: A month after the nationwide strike against the decision to impose one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery items, the government is likely to come in to the jewellers’ rescue soon.
Chairman of All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation Sreedhar G V said, “We have represented our case before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and BJP president Amit Shah. We hope that the decision to roll back the excise duty will be taken by next week.”
Sreedhar added the industry is not against the imposition of the tax, provided it is collected after increasing the import duty on jewellery items from the present 10 per cent to 11 per cent. The major bone of contention for the industry is the interference and harassment the traders are likely to face by the several government agencies, on account of collection of the additional tax imposition.
All India Bullion Jewellers and Swarnkar Federation (AIBJSF) president Praveen Goel claimed that the strike received support from one crore jewellers. The federation has planned to launch a mega protest in Delhi on Sunday. “Almost all political parties are against the government’s decision of imposing excise tax. We are a mechanised industry and government must understand the decision has harmed the interest of crore of people,” Goel said.