Gem & Jewellery industry disappointed!
Gem
& Jewellery industry disappointed
with
increase in import duty on Gold &
precious
metals: GJEPC
With
cost of doing business going up,
export
competitiveness will go down;
Indian
exporters will lose business
to
neighbouring countries
resulting
in job losses!
The
Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has sought rollback and
further reduction in import duty on Gold and precious metals, which has been
increased to 12.5% as announced by Hon. Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala
Sitharaman during the presentation of Union Budget 2019-20. GJEPC has also sought a reduction in import
duty on Cut & Polished Diamonds from 7.5% to 2.5% as part of the
Government’s focus on enhancing exports and strengthening India’s positioning
as a world leader in the diamond cutting and polishing business.
Mr.
Pramod Kumar Agrawal, Chairman, GJEPC, said, “The gem & jewellery industry
is going through very tough times with decline in exports and job losses and
the industry expected some positive announcement as encouragement to our
sector. GJEPC had represented for reduction in import duty for raw material
inputs like gold, diamond and coloured gemstones to get some blocked capital
released.
Instead
the increase of import duty on gold and silver and not decreasing the import
duty on processed diamonds and gemstones will result in growth of business in
neighbouring countries as the foreign tourists will stop buying jewellery from
India, and processing of larger diamonds will shift to competing countries such
as China and Vietnam.
GJEPC
will continue to work with the Government to get favourable relief for the
sector in terms of duty and ease of doing business at transaction level.” GJEPC
Chairman added that the first Union Budget presented by the first female Union
Finance Minister of the Modi 2.0 Government continues the ‘Reform, Perform
& Transform’ principles.
“India’s
Gem & Jewellery Industry desires a level playing field with other world
centres to maintain its global leadership position. The cost of doing business
has now gone up. We seek reduction in high import duty on Precious Metals
Gold/Silver/Platinum as it is encouraging grey market, hampering Export
Competitiveness and resulting in job losses and has not helped in curbing CAD,”
Mr. Agrawal said.
GJEPC
welcomes the proposal of business establishments with annual turnover of more
than Rs. 50 crore to offer low cost digital modes of payment to their customers
and no charges should be made applicable to the gem & jewellery sector
businesses.
GJEPC
welcomes the Finance Minister's proposal to apply the lower rate of 25%
corporate tax to include all companies having annual turnover up to Rs. 400
crore.
GJEPC
welcomes the Government’s initiatives of facilitating cluster based development
to make the traditional industries more productive, profitable and capable for
generating sustained employment opportunities. GJEPC has already set up Common
Facility Center in Visnagar, Palanpur, Amreli, and Junagadh in Gujarat with a
view to improve quality and production of diamonds.
GJEPC
has initiated a cluster mapping study through NCAER and based on its findings,
dedicated CFCs will be setup at high potential target clusters to enable them to
be competitive and internationally compliant to all standards and requirements
related to manufacturing, processing, sourcing and product quality.
GJEPC
recommends inclusion of gems & jewellery in focused sectors such as Bamboo,
Honey and Khadi clusters. The SFURTI envisions setting up 100 new clusters
during 2019-20 and this should enable 50,000 artisans to join the economic
value chain. GJEPC urges Government to include gem & jewellery sector
craftsmen and artisans in this initiative.
GJEPC
welcomes the Government’s initiative to launch a Mission which will integrate
our traditional artisans and their creative products with global markets. This
is positive for the gem & jewellery industry. GJEPC hopes that the
Government’s initiative of creating world-class universities will also extend
to gem & jewellery training and skill development institutes.
It
also hopes that the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan Yojana pension scheme
will benefit lakhs of workers in gem & jewellery businesses.
India’s
Gem & Jewellery Industry, a world leader in Cut & Polished diamonds, is
of a USD 41 billion industry and contributes 7% to India’s GDP and 15% to
Merchandise Exports; and employs workforce of 5 Million across India. Indian
diamond industry alone provides livelihood to 1.5 million families and
generates value addition in excess of US $ 7 billion!
GJEPC
has sought the following from the government:
1:
Reduction in Import Duty on Precious Metals Gold/Silver/Platinum from 10% to
4%.
2:
Reduction of import duty on cut and polished precious and semi-precious
gemstones from 7.5% to 2.5%.
3:
Facilitating exports of gems & jewellery through e-commerce.
4:
Special budget provision for inclusion of gems and jewellery merchant exporters
under 3% interest equalization scheme.
I agree to some points mentioned in this blog
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