Withdraw tax on unbranded gold jewellery, CM writes to PM and FM
March, 30th 2012
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in separate letters to prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has urged them to immediately withdraw decision to double customs and excise duty on unbranded gold jewellery.
In his letters, the CM emphasised on rollback of taxes saying it was necessary in larger interest of small gold jewellers and artisans dependent on the trade for livelihood.
Chouhan has pointed out that Madhya Pradesh has a large number of small jewellery-makers who trade in unbranded gold jewellery and employ thousands of workers for making gold jewellery asa cottage industry. Imposition of excise duty on unbranded gold jewellery shall result in affecting the livelihood of these large numbers of workers engaged in repair and manufacture of gold jewellery. This regressive step of imposition of import duty as well as excise duty would also result in smuggling, parallel and black market economy which was earlier put on a back foot due to reduced customs duty structure on gold imports.