Rajesh Exports wants Govt clearance to ship gold jewellery above 22-carat

The Dollar Business Bureau 

The leading gold manufacturing and jewellery company in India, Rajesh Exports Ltd has approached the Government for grant of permission to export gold jewellery of purity of 23-carat and 24-carat ‘on an urgent basis’ from its Cochin special economic zone (SEZ).

Last week, the Government had barred the exports of gold jewellery, medallions and other items with purity of more than 22-carat in order to check the round tripping of yellow metal.

Rajesh Exports, in a representation to the Ministry of Commerce, said that it has been shipping gold jewellery of 22-carat, 23-carat and 24-carat and also 24-carat medallions from its Cochin SEZ for several years. The company highlighted some specific issues faced by it after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“Due to the implementation of GST on imports under advance authorisation, we have not been able to execute a single export order since July 1. Due to this, we are facing a very serious and a critical situation, which is heading towards a very grave irreparable situation,” the company said.

Under the Advance Authorisation Scheme, exporters are permitted to import raw material duty-free for the purpose of exports. However, in the new GST regime, exporters will first have to pay integrated-GST (IGST) on such raw material imports and after that they have to seek refund, which is a cumbersome procedure and it blocks their working capital, according to exporters.

“As an emergency measure, executing the already delayed urgent export orders of 22-carat, 23-carat and 24-carat gold jewellery and 24-carat gold medallions should be allowed from the Cochin SEZ,” it has added.

On the other hand, experts say that it is tough to make quality jewellery out of 23-carat and 24-carat purity of gold.