New Delhi: The jewellers' strike enters the 21st day on Friday and there's still no sign of a solution. However, hoping to find one soon, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will be meeting with members of the jeweller community on Friday.
Pranab met a few of them on Thursday as well, along with RJD Chief Lalu Prasad. The jewellers across the country are demanding a complete rollback of excise duty on unbranded jewellery and a hike in import duty on gold.
In the budget, Mukherjee had hiked the import duty on gold bars, coins and platinum from two to four per cent and levied one per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery.
This has led to the jewellery trade being shut down since March 17, terming the new levies "unviable".
The AIGJTF made two representations to the finance ministry explaining the difficulties encountered by them and sought a complete rollback of the new proposals, prompting Mukherjee to assure that the government would set an "acceptable formula" on these proposals.
"However, Vivek John, Joint Secretary, Tax Research Unit-1 of the ministry has said that the issues raised by us are being examined by the Central Board of Direct Taxes and would be clarified shortly. But this is just a temporary relief and not acceptable to us," Bamalwa said.
Until then, the AIGJTF has decided to continue with its ongoing agitation, he said.
With additional information from IANS
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