GJEPC congratulates the Govt. of India and the honorable Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting a strong pro-reform and export growth-oriented Union Budget under the visionary leadership of our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
The gem and jewellery sector in India is overwhelmed by the Government support extended to the gem and jewellery industry in the Union Budget 2022- There is a swathe of favourable policy reforms announced that empowers the industry and puts it on a firm footing to capitalise on growth opportunities in the coming decade.
GJEPC is grateful that the Government considered its recommendation to reduce the Customs duty on cut and polished diamonds, gemstones and sawn diamonds. In her Union Budget speech, Smt. Sitharaman announced that the Customs duty on Cut and Polished Diamonds and Coloured Gemstones had been reduced from 7.5% to 5%, while that of Simply Sawn diamonds was brought down to nil duty.
Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC said, “The Indian gem & jewellery sector is one of
the leading contributors to the national economy and the country is the undisputed leader in diamond processing. Reduction in import duty on cut & polished diamonds to 5% will further help in strengthening the sector and retain its leadership position.”
“Acceptance of personal surety bonds in place of bank guarantee for import of gold will meet our longstanding demand of simplifying duty free gold availability, especially to the SME exporters of gold jewellery and revive the exports of plain gold jewellery.Surety Bonds in place of Bank Guarantee will be made acceptable to reduce indirect costs for suppliers. This will help gold jewellery exports,” said Colin Shah.
Vipul Shah, Vice Chairman, GJEPC commented, “The Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has announced some much-needed reforms that would springboard the sector to multi-fold growth in the coming year, thus eclipsing its relatively modest performance over the last decade. The emphasis on infrastructure spending is good news for the India Jewellery Park Mumbai (IJPM) which will be greatly benefitted due to the same. We also expect these reforms to raise the level of trust and transparency in the Indian gem and jewellery sector to a whole new level.”
Colin Shah further added, “The Government has been quick to realise the potential of e-commerce and has proposed to implement a simplified regulatory framework by June 2022 to facilitate gem & jewellery exports through the e-commerce route, ensuring that jewellers from every district in the country are able to ship their products overseas in a fast and economical manner. This is the need of the hour as the e-commerce sales of jewellery are growing exponentially in US and the consuming markets. The broad basing of the exports through this measure have the potential to grow the exports from this sector to USD 100 billion dollars in the next 5 years.”