Union Budget 2023-24: Recommendations Made For The Gold & Jewellery Industry

Here are some of the announcements made by Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2023-24 for the Gold, gems and jewellery industry.

Gold to Electronic Gold Receipt

The conversion of physical gold to Electronic Gold Receipt and vice versa is proposed not to be treated as a transfer and not to attract any capital gains. This would promote investments in electronic equivalent of gold.

Colin Shah, MD, Kama Jewelry commenting on the Union Budget for the industry said, "It was a mixed budget for the Gems and Jewelry industry as the FM did acknowledge the potential of the Lab Grown Diamonds for exports, and to create employment. An R&D grant for five years will help in creating local manufacturing capacities, thereby reducing our dependency on imports of machinery in the years to come. The move to not impose any capital gains on the conversion of physical gold to electronic gold receipts and vice versa will help further gold monetization. This announcement may help in reducing the import of gold.

The hike in basic customs duty on articles made from gold bars and import duty on silver will lead to a rise in the final price of locally made jewelry and maybe challenging for the local refineries.

There was no announcement for the natural diamond industry in terms of duties and our SNZs. Not having a repair policy will also be damaging for our DTA Jewellery exporters," he stated.