The gold trade in Kerala, which is said to handle around a tenth of gold jewellery sold in the country, feels let down by the Kerala Budget .
“We are totally disappointed,” B.Girirajan, president of All-Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association, told Business Line . “We had hoped that the Budget would come to the rescue of the gold sector which is passing through a very bad patch.” The Budget had let the sector down on both of its major demands: cut in compounding tax and doing away with value-added tax.
He said the turnover of most jewellers had come down due to the stiff restrictions imposed by the Union Government and the RBI.