JEWELLERS’ STRIKE AGAINST EXCISE DUTY

Jewellers

PNG

the situation

Pune Saraf Association

Fatechand Ranka

Yuvaraj Belapurkar

Sharad Pawar

Nitin Gadkari

The 14-day long jewellers’ strike witnessed a temporary hindrance when P N Gadgil) decided to distance itself from, as it felt that the customers were being inconvenienced. However, they quickly withdrew their stand upon being convinced by members of. On Monday evening, they re-joined the protest, where 400 jewellers from the city are agitating against the government for imposing one per cent excise duty on jewellery., president of the Pune Saraf Association, said, “PNG’s decision was an outcome of some misunderstanding and the enterprise has now agreed to remain part of the strike. The shops which belong to PNG would be closed till the end of the strike.”On March 14, PNG issued a statement saying that their shops would be open for the customers, implying that they had quit the ongoing agitation. They had further stated that they had agreed to the government’s decision on the imposition of excise duty. Certain branches from the city also demanded police protection to avoid untoward incidents.Ranka dismissed these actions as mere rumours. He said, “No member, including PNG, will go away from this strike. We are all united for the cause. We have discussed it with all the members and all are agreed to continue the strike.”PNG confirmed the news saying that they had changed their mind and will continue to agitate with the association., branch manager of PNG, said, “We have changed our mind regarding distancing ourselves from the cause. The decision was taken after other member jewellers heard our grievance.”He further added that they do not want to see a split in the union. According to the latest decision, the shops will remain closed until the strike concludes. Currently, more than 70,000 jewellers and 2.5 lakh goldsmith have gone on a strike across the district. The union has not budged from its decision even after conducting a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chiefand Union transport ministerover the matter.These jewellers believe that imposition of excise duty will lead to corruption in the business and also burden them with maintaining records.