disposable income news: Increased disposable income due to tax changes will help boost jewellery sector: Organised retail jewellers

Organised retail jewellers said that the change in tax slabs in the Union Budget will benefit organised retail jewellery as there will be more disposable income in the hands of Indians.

Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers said:” We are confident that increased disposable income due to changes in the tax slab will improve spending power, thus benefiting the overall consumer sector including the organised jewellery retail industry. Initiatives such as PM Vishwa Karma Kaushal Samman programme are a pioneering step towards empowering traditional artisans and craftspeople – the backbone of our industry. This newly-conceptualised assistance package will be a welcome relief to the community and will enable them to equip and upgrade themselves with changing times. The government’s innovation-led and technology-driven approach reflects in its investment towards research on lab-grown diamonds, which will generate new employment opportunities, while resonating with the export as well as urban Indian market. The increase in the import duty of silver will not have a significant impact for us (Kalyan jewellers), as our primary focus is on gold, diamond and other precious stone studded jewellery.”

Added MP Ahammed, Chairman, Malabar Gold & Diamonds said “With the prospects of a global recession looming large, the finance minister spelt out measures to keep economic growth on track with steep capex allocation and restructuring personal income tax slabs to boost India’s consumption story. The biggest push came in the infrastructure sector with a more than 33% hike in capital expenditure. The decision to promote lab-grown diamonds would give further impetus to our exports. The gems & jewellery industry is, however, disappointed with the budget not resorting to the reduction in import duty. The increase in the duty of silver is expected to push up the price of the precious metal. 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.”

Suvankar Sen, MD & CEO, Senco Gold & Diamonds said “The impact of budget 2023 will be negligible for those who are making gold jewellery in India itself. As custom duties on bars of gold and platinum were increased earlier this fiscal. So there will be no new impact of budget on price of gold bars. Import of dore are a smaller percentage of total gold imports, so only dore duty has increased by 2.5% which may impact on the business of local refineries. Tax on jewellery import has been increased which will again have no impact on our business as Senco Gold & Diamonds and most of the jewellery industry members don’t import gold jewellery. We buy gold bars from banks and all our jewellery are made in India. Import duty on silver bars, dore has been increased by 2.5 % which may have some negligible impact on silver utensils and jewellery industry.”