Gems & Jewellery industry request 1.25% GST for their sector

The Dollar Business Bureau

In a bid to push for liberal tax regime, the gems and jewellery industry (G&J) has requested the government to consider a GST of 1.25% apart from zero duty on rough diamond imports, cut and polished diamonds exports and coloured gemstones.

This has been suggested as the industry fears losing its top slot in the domain and any wrong step with tax structure may hamper the trade of the items as mentioned.

The recommendations have been made by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) after carrying out a survey across nine months amongst 7,000 registered members.

The same concern has been echoed by the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) which has refused to accept a proposed GST rate of 4 per cent and is pushing for a rate of 1.25 per cent for the gems and jewellery sector.

According to the federation, gold being a sensitive product should be devoid of higher slabs of taxes, otherwise the forthcoming regime will likely turn the Gems & Jewellery industry into an unorganised sector. The move may also result a drop in tax compliances and revenue, leading to encouragement in smuggling.

Since the introduction of GST will be significant indirect tax reform, the council is expected to take into account the suggestions of the sub-committee of High Level Committee (HLC) constituted by the government. It has been duly formed to carry out discussions on levying excise duty on the unorganised Gems & Jewellery sector.

There are no taxes being effectively implied to the gems and jewellery exports in the present scenario, thus requiring any element of tax in exports to be rebated.