New Delhi:
Ahead of a meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, jewellers protesting against an increase in import duty on gold and excise duty on unbranded jewellery in the Union Budget, will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi at 10.30 this morning.
The Congress has also issued a statement urging the Central Government it leads to consider the demand of the jewelers "sympathetically." The jewellers have been on strike for 21 days now and say they will end their protest only if there is a 100 per cent rollback in the duty hike.
Mr Mukherjee has invited the delegation to meet him today, "In order to understand their (jewellers) concerns," an official statement said. That meeting will take place around noon.
The Finance Minister had proposed an excise duty of 1 per cent on non-branded jewellery of precious metals (other than silver) and had doubled import duty on gold to 4%.
This triggered widespread protests by jewellers in various parts of the country; they have been on strike since March 17. The stir yesterday spread to south India with traders in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry shutting shop. The jewelers have called for big rallies in Mumbai on April 7 and in Mumbai on in Delhi on April 11 at the Ramlila Maidan. Today, there were reports of some jewellers protesting on railway tracks in Akola, Maharashtra, sitting in front of a train that was about to leave. The railway police dispersed the protesters and arrested about 25 people.
The Finance Ministry has received several representations on behalf of jewellery manufacturers, including artisans and goldsmiths seeking reconsideration of the Budget proposal on the ground that the industry is unorganised and fragmented and would find it difficult to comply with the provisions of Central Excise Law.
Last week, the Finance Minister had said the Centre was considering the demand made in different quarters to withdraw the excise duty hike on non-branded jewellery proposed in his Budget. But he made clear that he would not consider withdrawing the hike in import duty on gold.