Overall, decent budget for Gems & Jewellery industry
- Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD – RiddiSiddhi Bullions Ltd and Executive Director, India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd.(IBJA)
Gems
& Jewellery had high expectations from the budget. We were
expecting certain modifications as far as the duty is concerned, but
nothing has been considered with regards to same. The government has
neither imposed any restrictions not has it hiked the import duty on the
gold. The industry was awaiting some announcement on the R & D
front. New financial instruments to extract gold lying in India so as to
increase CAD(Capital Account Deficit), but these were missing.
The
FM has a vision of putting in place a direct tax regime which is
internationally competitive on rates. Such a direct tax regime would be
matched by a modernised indirect tax regime by way of GST and will bring
both- greater transparency and greater investment
 |
| Prithviraj Kothari, MD – RiddiSiddhi Bullions Ltd and Executive Director, IBJA |
Introduction
of a Gold Monetisation Scheme is a good move. The new scheme will allow
deposits of Gold to earn interest in their metal account and jewellers
will be able to obtain loans in their metals accounts. Bank and other
dealers would also be able to monetise the gold.
It
has further been proposed to develop an alternative financial asset- a
sovereign gold bond as an alternative to purchasing metal gold. The eon
will carry a fixed rate of interest and also be redeemable in cash in
terms of face value of gold at the time of redemption by the holder of
the bond.
Stating
further, the ministry proposes to commence work of developing the
Indian gold coin which carries the Ashoka Chakra on its face. Such an
Indian gold coin would help to reduce demand for coins minted outside
India and also help to recycle the gold available in the country.
But overall it seems to be a good budget for the gems and jewellery industry.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would personally rate this budget as 7.
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