Jamshedpur, March 4: Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) president Suresh Sonthalia in a letter to Arun Jaitley, Union Finance Minister, has urged him to remove separate imposition of Excise Duty on Gold.
According to the letter, while we were reconciling to the possibility of Customs Duty on Gold being increased, the Shocker came in the form of separate imposition of Excise Duty.
Letter stated that jewelry is almost like a necessity in the context of Indian Culture. Specially for marriages. The middle class uses this commodity as a strong source of saving and hedging for it�s future contingencies. Hence, a tax on this will be a deterrent to this activity.
Almost 1 Crore artisans and small businesses depend on the Jewelry business for their livelihood. There is a strong possibility of this group becoming jobless.
Imposing of Excise Duty at the retail level of the chain is contrary to the essence of Excise Duty. Moreover, the supply chain of Jewelry manufacturing is very cumbersome and depends on numerous levels of artisans / craftsmen in the preparation of the final product.
This will make the imposition of Excise more difficult. It is very difficult to qualify the retailer as a manufacturer. Most important the imposition of Excise Raj, will increase the harassment to the trade.
Rules imposed to govern the excise act are non practical, and it is very difficult to comply. While, we all are waiting for the imposition of GST, and have postponed the idea of CST Waiver , and reduction in excise duties, this could also be postponed to the imminent imposition of GST.
The traders are ready to pay a tax within the existing and already imposed administrative frame work. Since we all believe that revenue to the government is key to development. Many of the traders are ready to absorb 1% paid to the government may be in the form of additional Customs Duty.
Sir, many of our Members form this trade are extremely agitated, and are participating in the nationwide strike. Entire Jewelry trade, including the artisans have shut their shops.
We as a great patron of this government feel this to be extremely embarrassing for all of us. We have huge hopes from you and your government, we continue to stand by the same. At the same time, it is our earnest request, that you will re consider and withdraw the imposed duty.
On Friday, the third day of the nationwide jeweler strike, Jamshedpur jewelers took out a rally in Bistupur where several gold traders along with chamber officials demanded waive off of excise duty on gold.