Jewellery exports may plunge 30% this fiscal

NEW DELHI: Gems and jewellery exports are projected to decline by 25-30 per cent in the current fiscal as there was a "complete washout" of the first quarter due to lockdown to curb spreading of the COVID-19, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) said.

"There was a complete shutdown during the first quarter of this financial year (April-June) due to complete lockdown in India as well as the importing countries in order to curb the spread of the pandemic."Even as things are improving the washout of the first quarter will have a cascading effect on the entire financial year," GJEPC Chairman Colin Shah said.

He also said the next two quarters will continue to be challenging due to manufacturing restrictions."Overall, we are expecting 25-30% decline in gems and jewellery exports in 2020-21," he said.

This year, there is going to be demand but manufacturing will be the challenge because a lot of workers have still not returned, he said, adding "we hope we can ramp up manufacturing to go up with the demand".

Jewellery manufacturers were functioning with 25% manpower keeping in line with state government guidelines amid the pandemic. This limit has been increased to 50% along with the rest of the safety guidelines that the manufacturers have to maintain, Shah said.

NEW DELHI: N.K. Singh, the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, along with the other members, will hold a day-long meeting with the Economic Advisory Council of the commission.

An official statement said that the meeting is for a "final discussion on GDP growth, tax buoyancy of the Centre and the states, GST compensation, revenue deficit grant and fiscal consolidation".

The meeting comes at a time when India has recorded massive 23.9 per cent contraction in the GDP during the April-June quarter. The development has called for serious thought among the policy makers for the country's economic trajectory amid the pandemic.