STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The members of Swarnkar Sangh and Sarafa Association Joint Action Committee (J&K) have decided to continue their agitation against the imposition of one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery.
In this regard, a meeting of Swarnkar Sangh and Sarafa Association Joint Action Committee (J&K) held a meeting under its Chairman Raman Suri in which the members unanimously decided to continue with their strike under the banner of All India Swarnkar Sangh and All India Sarafa Association.
Suri told that the jewelers fraternity will continue their strike by closing their establishments till their demands are met.
Prominent among those who were present in the meeting include Arjun Jain President Safara Association, Kulbhushan Anand, President Swarnkar Sangh; Vijay Verma general secretary Sarafa Association, Ajay Vaid General Secretary Swarnkar Sangh, Arun Sethi senior vice president Swarnkar Sangh, Rajesh Verma Vice President Swarnkar Sangh and Sanjay Jain, Ajay Talla, Rakesh Mahajan, Darshan Lal and C.L Khajuria executive members of Swarnkar Sangh and Sarafa Association Joint Action Committee (J&K).
The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in a release said that the 18-day stir caused “losses of Rs 60,000-70,000 crore” to the industry.
The decision to call off the strike was taken on Saturday night after the government assured jewellers that there will be no harassment by excise officials and no ‘inspector raj’, Gems and Jewellery Federation Chairman Sreedhar G.V said.
“It (Excise duty) has not been rolled back, but our grievances have been taken care of. The Finance Minister has assured us that there will be no ‘inspector raj’ and we are hopeful of getting a notification in this regard soon. After long deliberations, all associations agreed to call off the stir,” Sreedhar said.
Jewellers were also opposed to the mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transactions of Rs 2 lakh and above.
A three-member committee, headed by Economist and former Chief Economic Adviser at the Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs Ashok Lahiri, has been constituted to look into the issues related to Excise duty of the jewellers association and trade bodies and to evolve at a solution.