27/03/2012
Excise control irks gold traders
Mar 23, 2012, 12.34AM IST TNN
HYDERABAD: Gold traders from across the city took out a candlelight march at Charminar on Thursday evening as part of their ongoing protest against the levy of excise duty on the sale of gold.
Over 500 jewellery shops across the twin cities, of which over a 100 are concentrated in the Old City, have remained shut ever since it was announced in the Union Budget that a 0.3 per cent excise duty would be levied on the total amount of the gold sale. Gold traders say it is not the tax levy they are protesting against but the fact that jewellers will now have to face the central excise department.
The twin cities consume gold worth Rs 30 - Rs 40 crore everyday and traders say that they will remain closed even on Friday after opening the store briefly to perform the Ugadi puja.
"A 0.3 per cent excise duty will earn the government hardly any revenue but it would make gold traders answerable to the excise department," said Hemant Gupta, vice-president of the Twin Cities Jewellers Association. He said that excluding the branded showrooms, all the local gold stores in the city had complied with the national bandh call given by the Gem and Jewellery Trade Federation.
Jewellers here said that the custom duty on gold had been increased from 1 per cent to 2 per cent a few months ago and in the Union Budget it was further increased to 4 per cent. "We do not mind paying even a higher custom duty, but we cannot have the excise department on our head," said Ramesh Chand, president, Char Kaman Sarafa Association.
Gold traders said that that it was 20 years ago when gold control was removed. They said during those times, traders feared the excise department and the sudden checks conducted on their shops. According to them, even small time traders dabbling in gold will have to maintain elaborate books and records should they come under the excise department. "After the Gold Control Act was removed, there was tremendous growth in the industry. There was no need for any licence and people were free to enter the business. This led to more number of people getting into the business," said Gupta.
Traders say that if the excise department comes into the picture, even small transactions will have to be accounted for. "If we are giving 100 grams of gold to a worker, how many entries will we have to make," questioned Ramesh Chand. "The government is attaching another department to the trade. During the Gold Control Act we had faced many problems," asked a gold trader in Abids.
