Govt asks jewellers to settle March-May excise dues with June payment

The government on Saturday asked the jewellers to settle the excise dues for March-May along with that of June and get themselves registered with the central excise department by July 1.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had in the Union Budget 2016-17 on February 29 imposed 1% excise duty on non-silver jewellery which led to widespread protests by jewellers.

The agitation, however, was temporarily called off on April 13 following assurances from the government that there will be no harassment by tax officials.

"Assessee jewellers may make payment of excise duty for months of March, April and May 2016, along with payment of excise duty for June 2016," the Finance Ministry said.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has also extended the time limit for taking central excise registration of an establishment by a jeweller up to July 1, 2016.

The jewellers, CBEC said, are liable to pay excise duty with effect from March 1, 2016.

The government has, meanwhile, set up a committee under former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri to look into the demand of agitating jewellers and also into their grievances with regard to compliance and operating procedures for payment of excise duty.

The other members of the Committee include legal expert Rohan Shah, Commerce Ministry Joint Secretary Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, CBEC Joint Secretary in Tax Research Unit Alok Shukla and Gautam Ray.

Representatives from the trade will be shortly appointed to the panel.

The CBEC has also asked all associations or trade and industry to submit their representations before the committee by emailing to 'highlevelcommittee@gmail.Com'.

The gems and jewellery industry is estimated to have incurred over Rs 1 lakh crore loss due to the 42-day strike beginning March 2. Jewellers have also been protesting against the mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transactions of Rs 2 lakh and above.