Jewellers end 21-day strike
Jewellers on
Saturday returned to business, suspending a three-week long strike following
the government’s assurance to consider their demand for a rollback of excise
duty and hike in import duty on gold.Bullion traders and
jewellers opened their shops on Saturday, after calling off 21-day nationwide
strike on Friday, as government assured them that their demand for rollback of
excise duty on non-branded jewellery will be looked into.“Most of the jewellery shops
in the country have opened this morning,” All India Sarafa Association
president Sheel Chand Jain told PTI.
Bullion
markets in the metros, including Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai and Chandni Chowk in Delhi were in their glittered
business. Delhi, the bullion market opened with gold
quoting at Rs. 28,400 per 10g. traders reported frugal business.
Retail jewellers resumed
business in most parts of the country except some places in Maharashtra
as traders came to Mumbai for attending a pre-scheduled rally, Bombay Bullion
Association President Prithviraj Kothari said.
Jewel traders to
have lost Rs. 20,000 crore approx. due to the strike, while loss to the exchequer was
about Rs. 1,200 crore in revenues.Jewellers, categorically
warned the government that they would resume strike if the proposal to levy
excise duty of 1 per cent is not withdrawn in the Finance Bill, which is
expected to come up before Parliament early next month.
Their strike from March 17,
2012 followed the Budget proposals a day earlier. They included doubling of
import duty on gold to 4 per cent.Trading volumes, which were
thin in the morning, are likely to pick up during the day, Delhi Jewellers and
Goldsmith Association president Ram Avtar Verma said.India, the world’s largest gold consumer, imported 967
tonnes of the precious metal in 2011.
Gold is the second biggest
commodity imported after crude oil, adding to the country’s current account
deficit. The government has maintained that the import duty hike has been
proposed to cut the country’s imports.Media agencies
No comments:
Post a Comment