India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced a boost to export on jewellery through e-commerce and a drop in import duty of cut and polished diamonds, with no marked change for gold imports in the Union Budget 2022. The local and global diamond and jewellery industry welcomed the pro-reform and export growth-oriented Union Budget.

Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC said, “The Indian gem & jewellery sector is one of the leading contributors to the national economy and we’re the undisputed leader in diamond processing. Reduction in import duty on cut and polished diamonds to 5% will further help in strengthening the sector and retain its leadership position.” Commenting on the e-commerce potential Shah said that the “Government has been quick to realise the potential of e-commerce and has proposed to implement a simplified regulatory framework by June 2022 to facilitate gem and jewellery exports through the e-commerce route, ensuring that jewellers from every district in the country are able to ship their products overseas in a fast and economical manner. The broad basing of the exports through this measure have the potential to grow the exports from this sector to USD 100 billion dollars in the next 5 years.”

Vipul Shah, Vice Chairman, GJEPC commented that the “emphasis on infrastructure spending is good news for the India Jewellery Park Mumbai (IJPM). We also expect these reforms to raise the level of trust and transparency in the Indian gem and jewellery sector to a whole new level.” The Chairman further noted that “Since more than 90% of the gem & jewellery sector consists of MSMEs, the extension of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for MSMEs up to March 2023 will be a great relief to the sector, and we are happy that its outlay has been increased by ₹50,000 Crore to a total cover of ₹5 lakh crore.” Acceptance of Surity bonds in place of Bank Guarantee too has the industry in joy and would help SME exporters of gold jewellery and revive it too, he said.