18 day strike called off by jewellers; industry incurs a loss of nearly Rs.70,000 Cr
The 18 days’ strike by the jewellers has finally seen an end, as they called off their strike on Saturday. The whole strike has brought in a loss of Rs.60,000-70,000 crore to the industry as a whole. The strike was called off only after the government assured that they will not be “harassed” to pay the new tax by the excise department. The jewellers went on an indefinite strike in the initial days of March, when the government revived the 1% excise duty on gold jewellery, a decision that came after four years. The government was having a tough time to curb the craving for gold in India, even after the heavy strain of 10% import duty on gold and other expenses. It also promoted a scheme to mobilise more than 20,000 tons’ of metal from temples and homes. This decision came after annual imports of 1000 tons accounted for a trade deficit in the quarter. Based on the reactions from the jewellery industry the government has formed a committee so that they could address all the issues of the jewellers, relating to the implementation of excise duty. For the jewellers it was a familiar refrain from 2012. As back in 2012, the government had imposed excise duty and had to withdraw it on a similar note. Jewellery trade in India has been seeing a new low due to high prices and delayed purchase hoping for a duty cut in the budget. The whole situation has literally forced the importers to offer a discount of $53 per ounce to clear the checklist. But the decision to keep the import duty and impose excise duty has jolted the market out of its senses. Added to this, the gold imports also dropped from $2.91 billion to $1.44 billion.
March 21, 2016 | 06:26pm IST
to success.