Jewellery trade plan 3-day strike against duty levy

Jewellery manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers across the country plan on a three-day closure of their respective businesses from March 2 to 4, 2016. The 72-hour strike has been called by the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) in coordination with the All India Jewellery Associations to protest against government's proposal of imposing 1% excise duty in the jewellery sector.

G V Sreedhar, chairman, GJF, said the industry has been compelled to take this decision as the excise duty is damaging to the growth of industry. "The proposed excise duty of 1% without input credit or 12.5% excise with input credit will create huge liabilities for small manufacturers, who employ unskilled day-to-day labour at large, the very people the government wishes to exempt. Excise duty introduced and withdrawn both in 2005 in 2012 when UPA government gealised it was impractical to impose it on a very large unorganised sector," he said.

In 2012, the present ruling party has extended support to their agitation, a trader said.

Contesting the Centre's decision to levy excise duty on the gems and jewellery sector especially when 80% of it is unorganised, Ashok Minawala, past chairman, GJF, said the industry has been let down by the budget proposals. The sector is of the view that the government has failed to address many critical issues hindering the growth, when it had earlier declared gems and jewellery sector as a thrust area for creating 1 lakh jobs annually through Make in India initiative and export promotion.

"An average of Rs 5,000 crore worth of business will be lost by the industry, while the government will lose revenue of Rs 500 crore. Pan India all retail jewellers, manufacturers and wholesalers have decided to join the strike expressing their anguish over the government apathy towards the industry. With such policies, the industry will not survive," said Minawala.

A national trade federation, GJF, has been established for the promotion and growth of the domestic gems and jewellery industry estimated to be around Rs 3.15 lakh crore with the potential to grow to Rs 5 lakh crore by 2018.

The federation represents over six lakh players comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, laboratories, gemologists, designers and allied services to the domestic gems and jewellery industry.