India Creates Jewelry-Industry Task Force

RAPAPORT... India's finance ministry has agreed to form a special group to help resolve issues affecting the country's gem and jewelry industry.The task force will address various requests made by the trade, such as enabling direct sales of rough diamonds by miners in the country, reducing the polished import duty to 2.5% from 7.5%, and issues pertaining to the goods and services tax (GST), the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotional Council (GJEPC) said Wednesday."This would help address the sectoral concerns and resolve trade-related bottlenecks," said GJEPC chairman Colin Shah. "It's an important step towards attaining ease of doing business."The group will comprise officials from the GJEPC and the customs and banking sectors.If any issues brought before the special group are not resolved satisfactorily, they may be passed on to the Finance Ministry for further review, Minister Nirmala Sitharaman added. Image: Indian diamond manufacturers. (Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council)