GJF East Zonal Chairman Sankar Sen, Immediate Past Chairman G V Sreedhar, Director - Manoj Jha, Zonal Committee Member Srimal Dholakia and office bearers of Patliputra Sarafa Association Binod Kumar and Bharat Mehta met Honourable Finance Minister of Bihar Shri Abdul Bari Siddiqui ji and Commercial Tax Minister Shri Bijendra Prasad Yadav ji and submitted the representation on GST.

All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), national nodal trade body for the promotion and growth of trade in gems and jewellery across India, has proposed GST rate of 1.25 per cent for the gems & jewellery sector in their representation submitted to the Bihar Government.

Sreedhar G. V. Immediate Past Chairman & Director, GJF, said, “Gold is a very sensitive product and cannot be taxed at higher levels. While the G&J Industry is now gearing up for the forthcoming GST era, higher GST rate will hamper the growth of the industry. This will result in drop in tax compliances & revenue and will also encourage smuggling. There is an entire precedent on VAT collections in the past and 1% was the highest revenue collector from G&J industry. Therefore GJF has proposed that the GST rate for the gems & jewellery sector should be kept at 1.25 per cent with single HSN code similar to Excise, if the Govt. expects the industry to be compliant and get organized.”

Sankar Sen, Director – GJF, said, “The High Level Committee Report, which was unanimously accepted by the Government, was prepared after taking the suggestions and recommendations from more than 60 associations of India into consideration. Keeping in mind, the unique characteristics of the gems & jewellery sector, the karigars and small jewellers were kept out of purview of the Excise Duty. Therefore, while we welcome GST we request the GST Council to kindly recognize the practical issues faced by the sector as highlighted in the HLC Report before making any decisions.”

Manoj Jha, Director – GJF, Said, “The GST council has proposed multiple GST code for the G&J Industry, consisting of 13 major codes with over 50 sub codes. We have explained the criticality of the HSN code to the Honourable FM of Bihar and Commercial Tax Minister, wherein GJF feels that for an unorganized industry, it will be extremely difficult for over 80% of the players to adhere this compliance procedure. It will be an arduous task to maintain stock at the 8 digit level of HSN and potentially result in legal complications with the tax authorities. It is recommended that one standard HSN code to be maintained for the industry.”