Jewelry Industry Demands Simplified Procedures From GST
Manoj Dwivedi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry inaugurated the 34th edition of the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS 2017) organised by the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) on the 27 July, 2017.
Dwivedi said the jewellery industry needs to achieve a higher scale of achievement in coming years to become globally competitive and promote jewellery exports. The government is making various policy initiatives to find out ways and means to improve this sector since it is the only sector having maximum employment opportunities to both skilled and unskilled workers pan India.
Manoj Dwivedi, further while describing introduction of goods and services tax (GST) as biggest reform after 1991 economic reforms, he said, “Though the GST scheme implemented smoothly in the last four weeks, there are some implementation problems in certain sectors such as jewellery and diamond sectors and the government is working on this after getting the feedback from the industry associations.”
The IIJS included dignitaries like Praveenshankar Pandya (Chairman, GJEPC), Russell Mehta (Vice Chairman, GJEPC), Sabyasachi Ray (ED, GJEPC) and Saunak Parikh (Convener - National Exhibitions Sub-committee, GJEPC).
Pandya spoke about the prime minister’s vision to take the Indian Jewellery market to a higher level and described the targets of the diamond and gems industry for the year.
He said, “We are having $43 billion currently and by 2022 we want to achieve $60 billion. In the year 2025 we wish to reach another $80 billion. IIJS is taking the lead in putting the industry together and it is a platform for all exporters, local or combined to take advantage of this platform.”
At the launch he also spoke about the changes, the industry has gone through during GST and provides his views on the complicated procedures to be followed under the new tax reform.
“GST is a good act and derives simplification of taxes. But when a new act is introduced it doesn’t capture the practices that are relevant in the industry. The government needs to understand all 200 industries and we have to interact with them to give us procedural simplification which will make our activities easier. We would like the government to change some procedures and we have submitted a proposal as many procedural aspects in export are irrelevant and it will affect the production,” says Praveenshankar Pandya
To commence the inauguration GJEPC also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Diamond Producers Association (DPA) and will spend over Rs 2 million for promotion of diamonds in international markets.
