GJEPC Chairman Vipul Shah today 25th June attended the pre-budget consultation held by Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which included discussions with various industry leaders. The meeting was attended by Presidents and Chairmen of organisations such as NASSCOM, AIFISPA, FIEO, MPEDA, AEPC, CLE, and heads of state Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

During the meeting Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC thanked the Hon’ble Finance Minister for providing unstinted support always; and highlighted that diamond exports constitute 50% of the gem and jewellery exports. He noted a 30% decline in exports last financial year and a 15% decline to date this year.

He then put forth the following policy suggestions to boost the sector’s exports:

• Introducing a Safe Harbor rule in SNZs
• Abolishing the equalization levy for rough diamonds
• Introducing a Diamond Imprest License
• Introducing duty drawback on exports of platinum jewellery

The Hon’ble Finance Minister inquired about the platinum duty drawback, noting that this is a new request, and assured that the department would look into it.

FM further stated that the industry bodies should be equally engaging with State Govts so that they also take up the issues equally with the Centre for proactively solving industry issues as the Centre is doing this through a process of consultation. As per the FM, different issues of GST cannot be solved without such an agreement between State and Centre Govts.