 "Nagpur jewellers join a 3-day bandh on Thursday, March 3, 2016 to protest excise duty hike on jewellery PTI")
Jewellers in Maharashtra have called off their strike temporarily, from April 14 to 24.
"We are meeting the Union Minister Piyush Goyal tomorrow in Delhi with our demands, which include paying additional 1% additional tax on VAT instead of excise duty, no maintenance of extra register keeping details of each items, no additional tax on remake of old jewellery and no inspection of manufacturing and retail units," Maharashtra Rajya Saraf Suvarnakar Federation President Fatechand Ranka told PTI here.
"For this we have temporarily halted the strike in the state from April 14 to 24," he added.
Read more from our special coverage on "JEWELLERS,EXCISE DUTY"
He said if the demands were not met, the jewellers in the state will resume the strike.
In Maharashtra, jewellery sales everyday go up to Rs 250 crore, which doubles on festive occasions like Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year.
Jewellers across the country are on indefinite strike since March 2, against the Budget proposal to levy 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery.
Over 300 associations comprising over 3 lakh manufacturers, retainers, wholesalers, artisans among others, participated in the stir across the country.
As an alternative to the excise duty, the jewellers said the government can increase the customs duty by 1-2%.
