Central Board of Excise and Customs denies rolling back excise duty on unbranded jewellery

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC), countries top indirect taxes body, has ruled out any roll-back of excise duty on unbranded jewellery proposed in the Union Budget for 2012-13, saying the effective rate of tax is marginal and the government needs to raise more resources to fund its subsidies bill.

“We will soon issue clarifications and there should be no apprehension in this regard,” said CBEC chairman SK Goel at Assocham post-Budget interaction.

He said the effective excise duty on jewellery could be in the range of Rs 90 per 10 grams and small artisans who design and create jewellery for goldsmiths will not have to face the hassle of registration for duty payment.

Bullion traders are unhappy over extension of 1% excise duty to unbranded precious metal jewellery and have threatened to go on indefinite strike.

The government has also doubled import duty on gold to 4%. India, the world’s largest consumer of gold, imported 967 tonnes of the precious metal in 2011.

The government has proposed that a jeweller should collect one per cent tax from every buyer if sale consideration exceeds Rs 2 lakh to reduce the quantum of cash transaction in bullion and jewellery sector and for curbing the flow of unaccounted money in the trade.