The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), the national trade federation for the promotion and growth of trade in Gems and Jewellery (G&J) sector across India, has expressed disappointment over imposition of requirement of PAN Card on any transaction of Rs 2 lakhs and above. GJF represents over 3,00,000 players comprising manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, laboratories, gemologists, designers and allied services to the domestic gems & jewellery industry.
“This is not practical and will discriminate 70 per cent of the rural buyers including farmers as they do not fall under tax net and do not have PAN cards. As of today, there are nearly 23 crore PAN cards issued in India for a population of nearly 125 crore. Will it be justifiable to ask for a pan card to approximately 90 per cent of the population who do not possess one?,” quipped GJF director Bachhraj Bamalwa.
He said that the gems and jewellery sector is not the generator of black money. More than 80 per cent of the value of jewellery is raw materials like gold, silver, diamond, precious and semiprecious stones which are legitimately imported in the country. There is a value addition of 15-20 per cent in developing the jewellery products.
Today, people buy jewellery items not only for their daily uses but also for essential purposes like festive and religious functions, including marriages. In absence of any social security instrument of India people preferred to buy gold and jewellery for their social security.
GJF regional Chairman, Sankar Sen, on his parts, said, We feel there is great misunderstanding of gold/bullion with jewellery. Jewellery is for consumption, while gold/bullion is investment product. This will also slowly but surely rob the small artisans of their daily bread instead of encouraging them to progress. The pan card restriction imposed by the Center would discourage thousands of buyers from legitimate purchase of jewellery items for their family functions like marriages.
“We would witness more cash based high value jewellery transactions under such prevailing environment. We urge the Center to remove pan card requirement in jewellery sector and maintain status-quo on application of TCS on sales of bullion on Rs. 2 lakh and on Rs. 5 lakh of jewellery,” said Sen.
Significantly, Indian gems and jewellery industry is one of the largest in the world with a gold share of 29 per cent in global jewellery consumption. This sector’s market size is about 4-5 per cent of the country’s GDP, and it is the second highest contributor to the exchequer.
