Strike against excise duty from Motisons Jewellers’ perspective

Since the Union Budget was presented in the parliament this budgetary season, the proposal hasn’t satisfied all the industries. If some found the glass half filled, some were able to find the half emptiness. Same happened with Jewellers, bullion traders and artisans, who are on strike since the beginning of March, to showcase their dissatisfaction with one percent increase in excise duty, on non-silver jewellery.

From breadth to length of India, people involved in this industry are firm, with their decision regarding the protest and that is the reason why a disturbance on the surface of the tranquil ocean can be seen in metropolitan cities, where precious metals’ market is wearing deserted look since day one of the strike, which will go for an indefinite period.

Major industry experts Motisons Jewellers, are looking forward to Union Government’s initiative, which will curb the increased excise duty’s problem. Motisons Jewellers is a well-established name in the precious metal industry and one of the leading expertise, who support the whole industry and hopes for a better tomorrow, where no such plans are proposed.

Constituting a panel and appointing the former chief economic advisor, Ashok Lahiri as the supervisor, for resolving the problem by looking deep into the matter, is a hope that the government might come up with something better than that levied one percent increase excise duty.

As political leaders calling it an assassination attempt, the excise duty might have shattered some hopes but the steps that the government is taking to curb the crisis, are being called commendable by many industry specialists, including Motisons Jewellers.

Sandeep Chhabra and Sanjay Chhabra’s take on FM’s new proposal in Gold industry

Since the budget was represented in the parliament this budgetary season, numerous industries have embraced the favorable decision and some, on the other hand, have witnessed turmoil. Let’s take Gold and precious metal industry’s example for now, as this one is catching fire from length to breadth of India. That one percent hike in excise duty left the whole industry in frenzy and a huge number of jewellers and bullion traders brought attention towards their dissatisfaction by pulling a non-stop protest of 27 days.

Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai are the main metro cities that are witnessing this rage of anger since the Union Budget 2016 was presented in the parliament. The closure of all major and minor jewellery shops across the Nation has taken the form of protest.

The protest reached such a point that the Finance Minister finally had to assure the protestors about hopeful and requisite changes in the levied excise duty on non-silver jewellery. The FM, Arun Jaitley made it clear that only those jewellers would be levied with that single percent, whose turnover exceeds Rs 12 crores. This way, the jewellers below Rs 12 crores’ turnover, would not be liable to pay that excise duty.

Sandeep Chhabra and Sanjay Chhabra of Motisons Jewellers Limited, are glad that the Finance Ministry, at least acknowledged the matter and are hopeful that Arun Jaitley will take the necessary step and amend the current budget proposal, bearing in mind the turbulence among the industrialists.

Sandeep Chhabra mentioned that the artisans and job workers would not be covered by this duty. Eventually, they would not even be required to pay duty, take registration, file returns and maintain any Books of Account. Sanjay Chhabra, on the other hand, highlighted that Jewellers’ private records or their records for state VAT or for Bureau of Indian Standards (in the case of hallmarked jewellery) will be accepted for all central excise purposes.

Other changes that the Ministry of Finance suggested on Monday, March 28, 2016, included:

• The application for excise registration as well as returns can be filed online and field officers will provide hassle-free registration within two working days.
• There will be no post-registration physical verification of the jeweller’s premises and no requirement of declaring pre-Budget stocks.

Insight of Budget 2016 for gold and diamond jewellery with Sandeep Chhabra and Sanjay Chhabra

This year’s budget brought happiness for some and disappointed some on the other hand. With its main focus on agriculture and strengthening the common man, some issues were over considered in the Union Budget 2016, which result in disappointments and hopelessness by the related sectors.

That one percent increase in excise duty on gold and diamond jewellery stirred calm ocean of industry experts. Sandeep Chhabra and Sanjay Chhabra, owners of Motisons Jewellers Limited, expressed their concerned on the matter as they highlighted that one percent increase in excise duty has not only shattered the hopes of cut in import duty from ten percent to two percent but might also create more trouble for the jewellery industry.

India Bullion and Jewellers Association Limited is not optimistic either when it comes to job loss in the sector. Similarly, Bachhraj Bamalwa, the Director of All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation mentioned that the Modi government has disappointed the whole industry in Union Budget 2016. The cost of jewellery is believed to shoot up and might become way much difficult for the government to carry on with the excise duty. As a well-known fact, jewellery in India are mostly handcrafted and not machine made, so in order to implement the excise duty, the government will face a lot of problems.

Even its Vice Chairman, Saurabh Gadgil doesn’t have that much of positive review about this unexpected increase in excise duty. He thinks that the one percent increase in excise duty will lead to excise raj in the country and it may also cause harassment to the trade. He also mentioned that this year’s budget aims at high bracket taxpayers in general and that can be a reason behind this imposed excise duty.

Getting mixed reactions from the world on introducing something new, is quite expected across the globe, and so does India. This year, Union Budget became the hot topic to receive quite a number of reactions from the common man and industrialists, where many found it suitable and many considered it disproportioned as per their expectations.