Mumbai: Mumbai’s usually bust-ling jewellery hub —Jhaveri Bazar — wears a deserted look as the indefinite all-India strike by the jewellery industry protesting against the one per cent excise imposed on gold and silver studded jewellery by finance minister Arun Jaitely in the budget, completes 30 days on Thursday.
Mr Ashok Minawala, director, Gem and Jewellery Trade Federation said, “The industry is averse to the excise and is as adamant as the government is in not withdrawing the duty.”
A circular was issued on March 21 saying that the excise should be applied to sales and not manufacturing. But the industry has no confidence in the minister as this circular has not been converted into a notification.
“It is not even made a part of the Excise Act,” he said, adding that experts consulted by the industry are against the one per cent excise. And nearly a crore of workers are affected by the strike.”
Mr Bachhraj Bamalwa, another director, said the industry has suffered a loss of Rs 30,000 crore and government has lost Rs 3,000 crore. He said their “experience with the excise department during the Gold Control days from 1962-92 was terrible.
Due to the immense powers of officials, the trade never grew during these years, whilst the industry in the neighbouring countries which flourished.”
Equity markets end FY 15-16 on weak note
The equity markets signed-off FY16 on a weak note with the benchmark Sensex and Nifty dropping nine per cent each as disappointing corporate earnings growth, delay in promised reforms and fear about global growth slowdown triggered an exodus of foreign portfolio money during the most part of the year.
On Thursday, the Sen-sex closed the volatile trading day at 25,341.86, gaining just 3.28 points or 0.01 per cent. The Nifty ended the day at 7,738.40, posting a marginal gain of 3.20 points or 0.04 per cent.
While emerging market equities including India rallied higher over the past one month on the back of a recovery in commodity prices, analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that the structural growth challenges facing the emerging markets are not over yet.
