The jewellery industry is shutting shop for three days starting Saturday to protest against the additional duties announced in the Budget on Friday.
The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said excise duty on unbranded precious jewellery would go up from 10 per cent to 12 per cent. Customs duty on standard gold and platinum was also doubled to 4 per cent and on non-standard gold from five to 10 per cent.
In January, the Government had doubled the Customs duty to two per cent.
In a statement on Saturday, the All-Indian Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation said the excise duty on jewellery will affect the industry and throw millions of self-employed skilled artisans out of their jobs.
In its pre-Budget memorandum, the Federation had appealed for scrapping the levy. The Federation comprises jewellery manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and exporters.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.