After protesting for 18-days against the levy of 1% excise duty on gold jewellery, jewellers and gold associations across the country have called off their strike, after the government's assurance that they will not be harassed by the tax officials. The government also assured the jewellers that it will form a three-member committee to address the concerns, which will submit a report in the next 60 days. It has been reported that the committee will be headed by former chief economic advisor Ashok Lahiri and will have three industry representatives, a law expert and Central Board of Excise and Customs officials as members.
It was also reported that the Central Board of Excise and Customs has instructed that jewellers will not need to declare their stocks to excise officials, who have also been asked not to visit jewellers to verify stock and records.
The jewelers were on an indefinite strike from the start of March after government reintroduced a 1-percent excise duty on gold jewellery after four years. The duty was earlier imposed in 2012, but was later rolled back by the government after the jewellers had called for a strike. As per the new revision, jewellers having an annual turnover over Rs 12 crore will be eligible for paying tax duty, while those having turnover below Rs 6 crore in the previous fiscal will be eligible for exemptions up to Rs 50 lakh during March 2016.
Meanwhile, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has said that the strike had caused losses of Rs 60-70,000 crore to the industry. India's February gold imports dropped to $1.44 billion, from $2.91 billion in January.
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