The world over the Covid-19 pandemic put a brake on life in general, impacting economies severely. Apart from the deadly disease, the lockdowns and subsequent economic hardships triggered a mass migration of artisans to their hometowns.
At the behest of the GJEPC, the Indian Government swung into action and introduced several relief measures to ease economic stress of the manufacturers, including the extension of time for repayment of export credit and gold loans; a moratorium on interest and EMI payments; the reclassification of MSMEs; and support to stressed accounts.
Logic dictates that consumers focus only on the essentials in times of distress, and that made gems and jewellery one of the first luxury items to be downsized. But not for long… as jewellery became the gift of choice for celebrating close bonds between loved ones. The resilient Indian gem and jewellery industry started functioning with safety measures in place from the month of May 2020, and witnessed export figures steadily recovering as markets like the US and China started buying again.
The GJEPC expressed deep gratitude to the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (MoC&I) for the numerous relief measures at the recently held CII Conference titled ‘Gems & Jewellery: Self-Reliance in Jewellery: Mining, Manufacturing & Market’ that was keynoted by Union Commerce & Industry Minister Shri. Piyush Goyal.
Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, who was one of the key speakers at the same event, said in his address, “The Government’s relief measures for the industry in the last six months have helped us immensely in getting back to our feet. India has a dream of being a global leader in the gems and jewellery sector, and I am sure we will achieve it with the support of the Government. This objective is also aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of making India atmanirbhar (self-reliant).
“Despite being completely import-dependent for precious raw materials, today we are global leaders in manufacturing diamonds and emeralds only because of our entrepreneurial spirit and skilled craftsmanship to produce world-class products.”
He urged the Minister that in order to help realise India’s dream of becoming the premiere sourcing global destination of gems and jewellery, the Government must look to cut import duty on gold to 4.5% from 12.5%, and on diamonds to 2.5% from 7.5%. “We will continue to lose business to other centres if gold continues to remain expensive, making it unviable for foreigners and NRIs to buy from India. The trade is also impacted by the growth in the parallel market due to the high gold duty.”
In response to Shah’s demands, Shri. Goyal assured, “Your suggestions on right-sizing the duty is under consideration of the Ministry of Finance,” and added that various suggestions of the sector on duties, SEZs, refund of taxes, logistics, financing, etc. are being looked into. He called upon the industry to deliberate on the steps that can help in checking the leakages as it is hampering liberalisation reforms.
However, he observed that to become self-reliant, the industry needs to re-think, re-orient and re-design its practices and processes which will lead to further progress. “India is today well recognised the world over for its gems and jewellery sector, for the ‘charm’ they bring to products, cost-effectiveness and conscientious work.
“Our gems and jewellery industry has a mindset which is contemporary in nature, which adopts with changing times and leverages our strengths across the world. If we built upon our integrity, I have no doubt that we’ll be able to expand our markets and meet the world’s needs from India.”
Shri. Goyal remarked that the Government is happy to deliberate with industry to see how MSMEs can be supported in the sector. This can be done with joint participation and active involvement of associations from the industry.
“In this new normal, we have the potential to engage with the world in a bigger way and improve our advantages in this sector,” he added. Heaping praise on the industry, he added that the India International Jewellery show (IIJS), which was held virtually on the digital platform for the first time, was itself a very big demonstration of our industry’s ability to face any adversity.
He called the sector to adopt state-of-the-art technologies, focus on skill development and upgradation, and attaining scale of production, so as to become the major player in the world market.
Shri. Goyal emphasised that the message of India’s commitment to quality and high productivity in different sectors should be taken forward. He suggested that the gems and jewellery sector could organise workshops, symposiums, webinars, etc. to propagate the message among the various stakeholders.