Central Board of Excise and Customs removes stock declaration rule for jewellers

NEW DELHI: In a significant step aimed at addressing the concerns of jewellers who have been on strike after the Budget proposed a 1% excise duty, Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC) chairman Najeeb Shah told field officials not to visit the premises of any manufacturer and removed the stock declaration requirement for the industry.

The CBEC will also accept documents given to state tax authorities, sending out a signal that there will be no harassment, one of the major concerns raised by the jewellers, who have been on strike for nearly two weeks.

"No stock declaration will be required to be made to jurisdictional excise authorities by jewellery manufacturers… I would request you to ensure that officers of the department do not visit the premises of these assesses for any routine purposes, like stock verification, verification of records," Shah said in a March 3 letter seen by ET. "There should no deviation from the instructions."

CBEC said commissioner-level officials will be held responsible for any deviation."Instruction to field is very clear… There will no harassment," said a senior CBEC official. In his February 29 Budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had proposed a 1% excise duty on jewellery without input credit or 12.5% with input tax credit on jewellery excluding silver other than that studded with diamonds and some other precious stones. But this duty is to be levied only on jewellers with turnover of more than Rs 12 crore, keeping smaller units and job workers including artisans out of the tax net. Moreover, the levy can be passed on to customers.

Gold and jewellery traders went on strike against the move with associations from different parts of the country planning to hold a protest rally at Ramlila Maidan on March 17. The levy is in line with the government’s plan to roll out the goods and service tax ( GST) as also its resolve to curb black money, which is salted away in the form of jewellery.