Jewellery trade calls off strike

The industry made a representation to the finance minister, and is understood to have clarified the ambiguity around the definition of branded jewellery.

According to Arun Kaigaonkar, chairman, Chintamani jewellers the matter is expected to be cleared by tomorrow.

Manufacturers and retailers had observed a strike on 3 and 4 March, protesting the levy.

Commenting on the budget announcement Sanjeev Agarwal, managing director ""Indian Sub-continent, World Gold Council (WGC) opined, "Continuous efforts by the government and specifically the ministry of consumers affairs over the last few years, have resulted in tremendous improvement in the quality of gold jewellery in India. The 2 per cent duty will adversely affect these ongoing quality improvement efforts and demotivate the jewellers from further investing in improving quality standards and innovate on the design aspect."

He further reasoned that there was a misinterpretation of the definition of branded jewellery as per the budget announcement, where the of 2 per cent duty includes even the jewellery manufactured in the unorganised sector.

The levy was widely expected to discourage hallmarking.

As part of the hallmarking requirements, the logo of the jeweller has to be incorporated on the piece of jewellery. But with the levy of excise duty on any jewellery produced with such markings, the jewellers would be inclined not to continue with the hallmarking process.

Over 90 per cent of the gold jewellery in India is manufactured in the fragmented unorganised sector, by artisans spread across the country. In the unorganised sector the jeweller normally buys the gold bars and hands it over to the workers to convert it into jewellery for which he is paid making charges.

The jeweller then puts in his personal logo as a mark of quality assurance on the jewellery that he has manufactured through the artisans in the unorganised sector.

Gujarat jewellers to call off strike from Saturday

Our Ahmedabad Bureau adds: Meanwhile, Gujarat jewellers, who are on an indefinite strike since Wednesday, are expected to call off their stir from Saturday.

Shantibhai Patel, president of Gem and Jewellery Trade Council of India, said, "We are going to present a memorandum to finance minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Monday."

Patel further said that the association is protesting against the notification, which does not match the finance minister' Budget speech.

Chidambaram announced that the two per cent excise duty will be imposed on branded jewellery but the notification says that the excise duty will also be charged on retail showroom jewellery.

Jewellery markets remained closed following a call by All Gujarat Jewellery Association. Markets across state including Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Bhavnagar and Amreli remained closed.