India’s Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has welcomed the country’s budget due to its reduction of the customs duty on raw materials like gold, silver and platinum to boost jewellery exports.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced measures to boost gem and jewellery exports by cutting the import duty on precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum.
Here are key features of the budget:
- The import duty on gold and silver has been reduced from 12.5% to 7.5%
- The import duty on Platinum, Palladium has been reduced from 12.5% to 10%
- The import duty on Silver Dore Bar has been cut from 11% to 6.1%
- The import duty on Gold/Silver Findings has been cut from 20% to 10%
- The import duty on spent catalyst or ash containing precious metals has been cut from 11.85% to 9.2%
Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, said, “We sincerely thank the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Finance Minister for this bold and pragmatic growth-oriented budget.
“The reduction in import duty from 12.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent will help (India’s) gem and jewellery exports to become globally competitive.
“The reduction in the duty on raw materials would give a much-needed boost to the sector and help it to move to the next level.
“In fact, high duty on precious metal had made our exports uncompetitive leading to a large Indian diaspora/NRI, moving to Dubai, Hong Kong or other centres to buy jewellery which was largely impacting the employment as well as the business in India.
“Along with this, the decrease of import duty on jewellery findings to 10% will help the jewellery manufacturer exporters in a big way. ”
Mr Shah added, “Another relief for the industry was the clarification on the Equalisation Levy. What we understand from the budget is that the Online Equalisation Levy of 2% is now not applicable on B2B purchases from international diamond auctions.
“This will help our manufacturers of diamonds to buy directly from miners.”
