The decision of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to obligatorily quote the PAN card number on jewelry transactions of Rs 1 lakh and above has not been well received by the All India Gems & Jewelery Trade Federation (GJF).

GJF, the national trade federation for the promotion and growth of the gemstone trade and jewelry industry, wrote to Jaitley to say that the government should consider removing the PAN card requirement in the jewelry industry. jewelry store.

“The total size of the industry is around Rs 2.5 lakh crore and out of that 70% of the transactions (around Rs 1.75 lakh crore) are done in the segment of Rs 1 lakh or more which mainly consists of rural buyers. The new proposal to add an additional PAN card requirement on sales above Rs 1 lakh will discriminate against 70 percent of rural jewelry buyers as they are not taxable and do not have PAN cards, ”he said. former President of the GJF, Ashok Minawala. .

This move will certainly give the unauthorized sector a boost and it is likely to prosper as the gold will then be sold without invoices, Minawala added. The association praised the government’s move towards monetization of gold and also said the government should consider reducing import duties on gold.

“The gold monetization program is a very positive step and will help control the current account deficit and allow gold depositors to earn interest and meet the capital needs of the industry,” said the director of the GJF, Bachhraj Bamalwa.

We hope that the Ministry of Finance addresses the important issue of reducing import duties on gold which has resulted in the creation of a parallel economy through gold smuggling. We expect reductions in import tariffs on gold soon, Bamalwa added.