Jewellery exporters’ body demanded the government to allow them for importing gold directly to overcome shortage of the metal faced by jewellery manufacturers. To overcome the shortage of gold, the government should allow trading and export houses to import gold directly into the country for boosting export of plain and gem studded gold jewellery, Sanjay Kothari, chairman, The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), said.
At present, Super Star Trading houses like Adani and Rajesh Exports along with 11 major government nominated agencies are allowed to import gold directly for export purpose.
“Select banks and nominated agencies are supplying gold to jewellery manufacturers located in the major centres like Delhi and Mumbai. But, the availability of gold in other key jewellery centres is not viable for them. As a result, the availability of gold in small centres is the major problem,” hesaid. Apart from this, the government should also reduce the import duty on plain gold jewellery (below 18 carat) from present 10% to 5%.
Italian jewellery industry is interested to set up manufacturing plant in India once market access in terms of lower duty is provided, he says. Reduction of import duty, India will be able to attract FDI from Italy for manufacturing jewellery, Kothari adds. Total exports of cut and polished diamonds in April-December 2007 period have gone up by 30% compared to same period last year.
Considering the increased imports of rough and cut & polished diamonds into the country, the real growth would be nearly 5%, he said.
“The government should also extend more export sops or subsidy to the gold jewellery exporters and see that banks to give more dollar finance to the trade and industry, he said.In a memorandum ahead of the 2008-09 budget, Kothari urged the government to allow import of precious metal scrap at concession rate (say Rs 100 per 10 gm) to help the exporters obtain gold at competitive price from overseas market in the form of scrap.
Zero import duty on cut and polished colour gemstones (at present 5%) will help in easy availability of coloured gemstones of various sizes and qualities in the country which will further help in growth and diversification of studded jewellery exports transforming Indian into Global Jewellery Trading Hub, he said.