The entire gem and jewellery fraternity is not very happy with the outcome of the Union Budget 2014-15. Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister today in his budget speech announced that semi processed and half cut, polish, gemstones, diamonds will attract a custom duty of 2.5 per cent, while pre forms of precious and semi-precious stones have been totally exempted from the customs duty. %% “The entire industry was waiting for a positive turn of events but was let down by the government in its maiden budget”, said Haresh Soni, Chairman, All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF). Indian gems and jewellery Industry is extremely disappointed with the Union Government Budget Proposals as the finance ministry did not consider their plea of reducing the import duty component on gold and also abolish the stringent 80:20 norms. %% “The union finance minister Shri Arun Jaitley has ignored the plight of the trade inspite of several representation and meetings by the federation with the ministry highlighting the severe hardship faced by the industry due to restrictive policy measures of the government in last financial year”, said Haresh Soni. %% “We had high hopes from the new government to provide relief to the gems and jewellery industry since millions of workers were looking at the new government to address their sufferings due to job losses in the last several months”, Haresh Soni said and added that “the GJF would continue to urge the Government against injustice meted out to the sector.’’ %% “The 80:20 rules were the biggest impediment for smooth operations of imports and development of premiums on gold as the export relation to imports had no relevance and had built a big parallel economy. Bringing down customs duty would have also eliminated smuggling and remove involvement of any black money. The entire industry was waiting for a positive turn of events but was let down by the government. For the last three years the sector has been bleeding due to stringent measures adopted by the government, we would urge the Govt to end the ‘Gold Control Raj’ and rescue domestic Gems & Jewellery Trade from parallel economy and black marketing, by abolishing 80.20 rule and reducing import duty on gold,” Haresh Soni added.%% However, GJEPC has welcomed the Government’s decision to renewed focus on promotion of exports and reviving the SEZs in the country. The GJEPC is in the process of presenting its recommendations for reviving the gem and jewellery SEZs in the country and will submit the same to the Government shortly. Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC said, “The budget is almost industry neutral without any of the sector’s demands like introduction of benign tax at practical rates, decrease of import duty on gold bullion and introduction of procedurals for creation of SEZ for rough diamonds finding any mention in the budget. However, we believe that this budget shows the intent of the Government is positive which will improve the fiscal position of the country.”