Bachhraj Bamalwa, Chairman, All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) says that the industry is overall happy with the Union Budget 2013-14. "There is nothing substantial for the gem and jewellery industry that the Honorable Finance Minister has emphasised upon in his budget speech for the Union Budget 2013-14. There is a big relief in the industry that the import duty has not been increased but we expect it to reduce further in the coming days. He has made efforts by announcing the instruments to protect savings from inflation such as inflation index bonds and inflation index national certificates which may make people shy away from investing in gold. But, we believe it is the right path," he said.%% "We have not yet received the fine prints of the budget and hence have not understood clearly his statement of reducing the import duty from 10 per cent to two percent for coloured stones. As we all know the import duty for coloured stones is presently two per cent itself and not 10 per cent," he further added.%% It is noteworthy to mention that GJF's hard work of the past six months have paid off as the government has taken into consideration two of its important suggestions which are as following:$$ 1) Recommendation of imposing Commodity Transaction Tax $$ 2) The acceptance of the suggestion regarding increasing the duty free gold limit to Rs 1 lakh for female passengers and Rs 50,000/- for male passengers. %% Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC said that he will be able to comment on the Union Budget only after receiving the fine prints. %% We expect to get his views to our readers very shortly.