GJEPC puts forth slew of demands before commerce ministry

SURAT: Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) had put forth a slew of demands at the joint meeting of Board of Trade and Council of Trade Development and Promotion which  was held in New Delhi on Thursday.

The meeting was chaired by Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal and attended by senior officials from the department where issues like IGST on reimport of consignment of jewellery, diamonds exported through mode of exhibition and Baba Kalyani report on SEZ were taken up.

Sources said reimport of jewellery, diamonds for overseas exhibition and export promotion tours are popular mode, so sudden imposition of IGST on them has critically affected the trade.

In an earlier meeting in January 2019 under the chairmanship of then Union commerce minister, the industry was expressly assured that gems and jewellery sector will be included under the 416 tariff lines identified under 3% interest subvention scheme (wherein merchant exporters were recently included). However, this has still not happened.

Department of Commerce had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Baba Kalyani to study SEZ policy in the country. There is possibility of the recommendations of the committee for boosting exports of gems and jewellery items from SEZs across the country being implemented at the earliest.

GJEPC chairman Pramod Kumar Agarwal said, “We are hopeful that the government will accept most of our demands. Diamond exporters are facing several difficulties on account of office note issued on 4th May 2019 by Mumbai Customs regarding variation in dimension of cut and polished diamonds & variation in valuation of rough diamonds. As there are no standard global norms in valuation of rough diamonds and for examining dimension of polished diamonds, exporters are facing several difficulties.”

Agarwal added, “We have sought relief from existing high import duty on key segments of the sector. The industry has asked for a reduction in import duty on cut and polished diamonds & precious and semi-precious gemstones from 7.5% to 2.5% and on gold from 10% to 4%.” 

Courtesy: Times Of India