Jewellers of the state have decided to call off their strike and will get back to work on Saturday after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee gave them an assurance about resolving their demands which include rollback of excise duty on unbranded jewellery.
"Our meeting with the FM and officials in New Delhi was good. They assured us they would resolve our grievances relating to the imposition of 1% excise duty, 2% increase in import duty on gold and the Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on purchase of gold jewellery of over Rs2 lakh," said Shantibhai Patel, Gujarat Jewellers Association (GJA) secretary.
"The FM has assured us he will take necessary steps in the next parliament session. Therefore, we have decided to call off our strike," Patel said and added, "We appraised the minister about the possible vulnerable situation of the jewellery industry on which 2 crore workers' livelihood depends."
The jewellers had been on strike for 21 days demanding to roll back the excise duty as its provisions are impractical and can push the jewellery industry into the inspector raj and lead to corruption. Many associations affiliated to the GJA and other goldsmith associations had staged protests by taking out rallies and road blockades.
They had also threatened to get more aggressive if the government would not agree to their demands. Earlier in the day, the jewellers met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her political advisor and prominent Congress leader of Gujarat, Ahmed Patel. Due to the agitation in the county since March 17 after presentation of the budget the previous day, the jewellery industry has estimated to have lost Rs 20,000 crore.
"The industry will face difficulties if excise duty is not rolled back," said Manish Langalia, Vora Bazar Choksi Mahajan in Bhavnagar, secretary. "The government has given a positive decision. It will be a great relief to small jewellers and ornament makers."
Meanwhile, in a press communication, Gujarat Congress leaders Arjun Modhwadia and Shaktisinh Gohil claimed they had contributed to the solution of the jewellers' issue by representing it to national leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel.
