Jeweller’ Strike Expected To End Today

Kolkata: The Jewellers' strike, which began country-wide on March 2 and has been most felt in Kolkata, along with Mumbai and New Delhi, will come to an end on April 11.

Since Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery in the Union Budget for 2016-17 on February 29, jewellers and bullion traders have been protesting about it. They were also opposing mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transactions of Rs two lakh and above.

The government had last month constituted a panel under former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri to look into the demands of jewellers and the panel has been asked to submit its report within 60 days. Jaitley said the Centre has given a benefit that excise would be similar to VAT on gold and has tried to allay fears that ‘karigars’ would be affected from the new taxation.

According to reports, although the Union government is not withdrawing the tax, the realization process is likely to be simplified. Jewellers in West Bengal do a brisk trade on the Bengali New Years Day (Poila Baisakh) and Akshay Trititya. With the upcoming wedding season, continuing the strike would have meant facing a big loss in business, which has already been affected by the 40-day strike, according to most jewellers in Kolkata.

Meanwhile, Since there is not enough gold in the market for regular transactions, much of the marriage requirement is being met through bullion stocked up for the purpose.