NEW DELHI: India, the world's largest consumer of gold has been hit by a massive strike by gold and jewellery dealers across India who are protesting against a new tax and duty regime imposed on the yellow metal in the annual union budget presented earlier this month. The strike which has been called by one of India's biggest jewelry and gold dealers association, All India Gems & Jewelry Trade Federation (AIGJTF), has several hundred organizations affiliated to it. The forum has demanded that the two percent duty on gold imports and other taxes imposed on gold purchase in this month's budget speech be rolled back by the union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. “We will not withdraw the strike until our demands are met,” president of the AIGJTF Baccharaj Bamalwa said, even as the stand off between the union finance ministry and AIGJTF reached the second week. The strike call has percolated across the country, even in the small western Indian state of Goa, where the local Goa Gold dealers association (GGDA) has joined hands with the pan India association. “The industry is not organized and involves thousands of small jewelers and artisans who will be further affected by increase in excise and import duty rates. The proposal to impose TDS on cash transactions over Rs 2 lakhs is impractical and would cause immense hardship and also loss of business to the dealers,” president of the GGDA Vikram Verlekar told Bikyamasr.com. Verlekar said that jewelers and gold dealers in India would down shutter for three days beginning Thursday in solidarity with the AIGJTF's call, even as consumers found it difficult to buy gold, which is now being sold at over $560 per 10 grams. Indians as a community have traditionally loved gold as a saving device as well as in form of jewellery and the country is the world's biggest consumer of gold, consuming over 900 tons annually, a large chunk of which is imported. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/dN2SN Tags: Gold, Government, India, Strike Section: Business, Latest News, South Asia
