Govt unlikely to remove 1% jewellery excise duty

The government is unlikely to withdraw its Budget proposal to levy 1% additional excise duty on non-silver jewellery, a top finance ministry official said. "We have received a lot of suggestion on it, but government is not going to withdraw it. After all GST (goods and services tax) cannot be complete without including jewellery into it," the official said.

The Union Budget for 2016-17 (Apr-Mar) had proposed 1% additional excise duty on non-silver jewellery. But following the strike by jewellers against the levy, the government in March had formed a committee headed by Ashok Lahiri, former chief economic advisor, to interact with trade and industry officials on the matter.

One of the issues raised by the jewellers is at what stage should the excise duty be applied on the product. "They could bring procedural relaxations on the issue as to whether the duty should be applied when they receive their product from the job worker, or when they are selling it. The representative from the jewellers' side wants it to be applied when they are selling," an official had then said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to announce the procedural relaxations when the Finance Bill is taken up for passage in Parliament in the second half of the Budget session.

Meanwhie, Jewellers and bullion traders in several parts of the country, including Delhi, resumed their strike on Monday, demanding rollback of the one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery. However, major associations such as All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation and India Bullion & Jewellers Associations, are not supporting the strike. -Cogencis