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Indian Jewelers Take Two-Week Pause from Strike
Apr 13, 2016 10:42 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Indian jewelers suspended their strike against a 1-percent tax
to eke out a two-week period in which they can open for business ahead of an upcoming
festival and amid signs the government won’t budge on the new excise duty.
At least 90
percent of jewelers around the country returned to work April 13 after about
six weeks of industrial action, a spokesperson for the All India Gems &
Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) told Rapaport News in a telephone
interview.
Sources said the
strike to protest the levy is scheduled to resume April 26, thereby allowing a small
time window for Indians to buy gold to mark the festival of Akshaya Tritiya May
9.
The GJF, one
of India’s main jewelry trade bodies and a key initiator of the strike, will
continue negotiating with the government but has accepted authorities will not
abolish the tax, the spokesperson said. A national committee set up with the sole
aim of lobbying for the levy to be scrapped has been dismantled after
barely a week, with the GJF now focusing on pushing for specific changes to the
tax.
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Tags:
All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, financial, GJF, India, Rapaport News, Strike, tax
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