Udupi: Jewellers’ Association calls for Three-day Bundh against Hike in Excise and Customs Duty on Gold

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Udupi: With the hike in excise duty by 1% for gold and also TCS applicable on purchase of gold ornaments above rupees 2,00,000 in the annual budget, the Udupi Jewellers Association has decided to shut down jewellery shops as a symbol of protest for three days from March 2, 2016.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured to protect the interests of the jewellers but his promises have not yet materialized. In the annual budget presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley 1% excise duty has been levied on the jewellers with an annual turnover exceeding 6 crore rupees. There is also 1% hike in excise duty for diamonds, jewels and precious stones. The introduction of GST will destroy the livelihood of jewellers.

The government considers gold as luxury item while it is mandatory for weddings and prominent occasions, with the hike in taxes it will directly affect the consumers and also jewelers. The UPA government had earlier hiked 10% customs duty on gold and the present BJP government has hiked the customs duty by 2.5%. If the same continues the gold sector will face severe crisis.

Sunil Shet, Ravi Shanker, Mohan, Yogish and others were present.


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2 Comments

  1. Dear readers,

    An RTI application by The Indian Express led to startling disclosures on Monday about bad debts of Rs 1.14 lakh crore written off by 29 state-owned banks between financial years 2013 and 2015 – much more than in the preceding nine years.

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed that bad debts that stood at Rs 15,551 crore for the financial year ending March 2012, climbed to Rs 52,542 crore by end-March 2015.

    The RBI did not report details of the biggest defaulters – individuals or business entities – whose bad debts of Rs 100 crore or more were written-off, arguing that “the required information is not available with us”.

    It would have helped the manufacturing sector, which despite the government rhetoric, is far behind China. But propaganda has displaced real statistics. The perilous state of the public sector banks also indicate that we are far from Make in India.

    The amount of loss, that is Rs 3.29 lakh crore is much more than the Rs 1.86 lakh crore in case of the coal scam and Rs 2 lakh crore in the 2G scam. Further, this is actual loss and not opportunity loss as in the case of coal and 2G scams.

    So public money of enormous amounts has been written off. The rich are relieved because huge funds investible for the poor are lost. As French novelist Balzac wrote, “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.” The real slogan in India should not be Make in India. “Make believe in India” would be more accurate.

    Sab ka saath,saath sabka vikas. These goldsmiths are the key sponsors of PM Modi’s BJP during 2014 Lok Sabha elections.Now became part of ‘make believe in India’ shining coffers of PM Modi’s debt ridden government which has only ‘bullet train’ to show.

    Jai Hind

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