Gem & Jewellery Exports up by 6.32%

- WD Team

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) of India has announced the performance figures for the Indian gems and jewellery sector for the financial year 2005-06. This industry has witnessed a growth of 6.32%, despite a slump and fears in the demand of diamonds. The total gem and jewellery exports reached US$ 16669.11 million or Rs. 73304.29 crores, as compared to US$ 15678.14 million (Rs. 70245.95 crores) of the last financial year.

The growth was mainly fueled by the cut and polished diamonds (CPD) segment that saw a remarkable increase of 6.07%. The total volume of CPD stood at 432.72 lakh carats, this year. Gold jewellery also registered a growth of 1.28%, with exports at US$ 3861.57 million in 2005-06. Colored gemstones grew by a whopping 21.05% to US$ 233.32 million in 2005-06.

“The gem and jewellery sector continues to be the frontrunner and highest contributor to the total value addition of the country, contributing US$ 3.5 billion this year,” spoke Mr. Bakul Mehta, Chairman, GJEPC. The USA, Hong Kong and UAE were the top export markets for the Indian gems and jewellery, followed by Singapore and Belgium.

Rough diamonds were imported to the tune of US $ 8708.98 million; gold bars at US$ 856.60 million and CPD at US$ 3009.02.

The announcement of plans to make India a global hub for this industry has been taking effect since talks a couple of years ago. It is now that India’s finance minister and commerce and industry ministers have seriously taken up the issue and are fully supporting the idea. The idea of transforming India into International trading hub in gem and jewellery sector is slowly taking shape in form of forming expert bodies to examine the turnover and presumptive taxation proposals; import duty on CPD, reducing from 5% to 0%. Undertaking steps to attract FDI, preparing SEZ Act, foreign trade policy and to finally rationalize tax structures at state levels such as, octroi and stamp duties.

It now remains to be seen as to how many traders it would really help eventually. Since a vast majority of the initiatives and import and export are truly enjoyed by a small number of companies compared to the number of people involved in this industry. “The general knowledge around this trade is that the cream and bulk of all the transaction, policies and fruits are shared amongst the top 10 % of the entire gem and jewellery industry, leaving hardly any scope for medium and small size companies to grow,” spoke Jayantibhai, a veteran trade analyst and editor of a local trade paper in Mumbai.