PAN card must, a big hurdle for gold business: GJF

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s move to compulsorily quote PAN Card number on transactions of jewellery of Rs 1 lakh and above has not gone down well with the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF).

GJF, the national trade federation for the promotion and growth of trade in gems and jewellery sector, has written to  Jaitley saying that the government should look at removing the PAN card requirement in the jewellery sector.

“The total size of the industry is around Rs 2.5 lakh crore and out of this, 70 per cent of the transactions (around Rs 1.75 lakh crore) are done in the segment of Rs 1 lakh or more which consists mostly of rural buyers. The new proposal of adding a further requirement of PAN card on sales over Rs 1 lakh will be discriminate 70 per cent of the rural buyers of jewellery as they are not under tax net and do not have PAN cards,” GJF past chairman Ashok Minawala said.

This move will certainly give a boost to the unauthorised sector and it is likely to thrive as gold will then be sold without bills, Minawala added. The association welcomed the government’s move towards gold monetisation and also said that the government should look at reducing import duty on gold.

“The gold monetisation scheme is a very positive move and will help control the current account deficit and will allow gold depositors to earn interest and provide industry’s capital needs,” GJF director Bachhraj Bamalwa said.

We hope that the finance ministry addresses the important issue of reduction of import duty on gold which has given rise to creation of parallel economy through smuggling of gold. We expect import duty reductions on gold soon, Bamalwa added.