GST: Dept Confiscated 90 Jewellery Parcels

Jewellery

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) department has confiscated 90 parcels containing jewellery for violation of rules.

Confirming the seizure, Mumbai GST Commissioner, KN Raghavan, said that the parcels, which came in from Gujarat, were seized as they may have been sourced and ferried flouting GST norms. Around 85 carriers have been detained in connection with the incident. Reportedly, the parcels contained gold, silver and unpolished diamonds and were ferried from Surat, Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar to Mumbai.

After the rollout of GST regime in 1st July 2017, this is the first seizure by the department.

“The parcels possibly contain gold, silver and diamonds and we have taken them for examination. Only after a thorough perusal of the jewellery items will we be able to monetize their worth,” Raghavan said. “We are checking if the jewellery consignments were transferred and ferried with the mandatory GST papers,” he added.

Under the GST regime, jewellery, silver and processed diamonds are taxed at 3 per cent, while the tax on rough diamonds will be 0.25 percent. Reportedly, with Customs duty of 10 percent, the total tax on gold is still high and will continue to have an impact on the jewellery industry. The 3 per cent tax bracket for gold and silver had been lauded by the industry as a step in the right direction in that it would result in better tax compliance. Today’s confiscation however points a finger at unscrupulous traders, who might have resorted to improper tax compliance methods.

Anticipating a higher tax rate, Indian jewellers have been stocking inventory, a move that was expected to hit imports of the metal in the second half of last year when gold demand was relatively high due to the festive season.

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