City jewellery shops go on 3-day strike

KOLKATA: Around 30,000 jewellery stores across Bengal kept its shutters down on Saturday in solidarity with the jewellers across the country. They are protesting against the increase in excise duty and doubling of customs duty on precious metals, Pankaj Parekh, eastern region chairman of Gems & Jewelry Exports Promotional Council said. Jewellers across the nation went on a three-day strike, starting on Saturday.
Finance minister during his Budget speech on Friday said: "I propose to increase basic customs duty on standard gold bars; gold coins of purity exceeding 99.5% and platinum from 2 % to 4 % and on non-standard gold from 5 % to 10 %.In sync with these, basic duty on gold ore, concentrate and dore bars for refining is being enhanced from 1 % to 2%. On the excise side, duty on refined gold is being increased in the same proportion from 1.5 % to 3 %."
The announcement has added to the plight of has added to the plight of the aspirant jewellery buyers who were already postponing purchase plans due to soaring bullion pices.
"Around 3,000 shops in the city were closed on Saturday in protest against this proposal," Parekh said.
Some of the jewellery associations are also planning to appeal to the Union finance minister to remove excise duty on both branded and unbranded jewellery.