All the jewellery shops in the city and state will remain closed for two more days.
All the jewellery shops in the city and state will remain closed for two more days. To protest against the hike in duty on gold, proposed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the budget on Friday, the jewellers decided to go on strike for three days till Monday evening. Now, the strike has been further extended till Wednesday evening.
The bullion market and the Choksi Association of Ahmedabad, along with over 5,000 jewellers in Gujarat, including around 1,000 in Ahmedabad, will stay closed along with nearly 5 lakh jewellers across the country. Some 1,000 gold dealers and jewellers across Saurashtra too will shut shop as part of the extension of the strike to protest against the increase in taxes on gold and the jewellery sector.
On Friday the finance minister proposed to increase the basic customs duty on standard gold bars, gold coins and platinum from 2% to 4%; and on non-standard gold from 5% to 10%. In sync with these hikes, basic duty on gold ore, concentrate and dore bars for refining is being increased from 1% to 2%. On the excise side, duty on refined gold has been increased in the same proportion from 1.5% to 3%.
"It seemed three days were not sufficient and so we decided to extend it for two more days," said Shanti Patel, president of Gem & Jewellery Trade Council of India. According to Patel, this move will cause unnecessary harassment to small-time jewellers in the country.
If the hike in duty is not rolled back, incidence of tax evasion is likely to go up. "Small and medium jewellers will be forced to evade tax if excise duty is increased," said Patel.
Nanalal Soni, president of Ahmedabad Gold-Silver Jewellery Traders' Association, said the world over all countries are liberalising norms to encourage their citizens to invest in gold.
"It seems the government has imposed a mini gold control Act. The finance minister's proposals will make gold costlier and people will be discouraged to invest in the yellow metal," Soni said. He added that gold is one such means of savings for the common people. If people are discouraged from buying gold, then they are likely to put their money in unproductive avenues.
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