Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today announced in the Lok Sabha that jewellery traders will have to pay one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery and their demands will not be accepted.
“Tax will have to be paid. But we will ensure that there is no harassment of jewellers,” Arun Jaitley was quoted by PTI as saying.
To the above quote, Jaitley added, “Luxury goods like jewellery cannot be kept out of the purview of the one percent excise duty when the country was moving towards the GST regime.”
Jaitley also took a jibe at Congress over its concerns for the village based jewellers, making a note that it had come out with 80-20 scheme in 2012-13 to regularize gold import and asked them, why were they not concerned at that time.
“If Congress is concerned about tax on gold, then it should have decreased the 5 per cent VAT on it in Kerala when it is one per cent in other states,” Jaitley was quoted by PTI as saying.
NDA ally Shiv Sena yesterday demanded the rollback, it also said “the Government should shed its “ego” and then decide. As per them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past had himself opposed the excise duty.
“I do not understand the logic behind imposing excise duty on jewellery. Once GST comes in, central excise will get abolished then what is the necessity of imposing it now… Government should intropect it, it should be rolled back,” Shiv Sena member Arvind Sawant was quoted by PTI as saying.
“We were the people who opposed it, including the present Prime Minister… It should be rolled back… just like the EPFO decision. There is no ego issue,” Arvind Sawant was quoted by PTI as saying.
