Jewellers of India are now on indefinite strike post imposition of 1 % excise duty in Union Budget 2016-17.
Today in Gujarat, jewellers of Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara observed strict bandh and given ultimatum for indefinite strike. Due to jewellers strike government has incurred Rs 10,000 crores loss.
They have also expressed feedback on customer’s pan card saying that many customers do not have pan card. Government has made pan card compulsory over jewellery purchase over Rs 2 lakhs. Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Saurashtra jewellers also observed bandh in protest against recent announcement. Jewellers are already facing difficulty of pan card over Rs 2 lakhs purchase. In 2005 and 2012 government had announced imposition of 1 % excise on jewellery sector which was later on withdrawn. Diamond and jewellery purchase has been included in excise duty imposition whereas silver jewellery has been exclude in recent budget announcement.
