Gems & Jewellery Exports Grow 45.8% to $19b in H1.

MUMBAI: The country’s second-largest export earner, gems and jewellery, posted a year-on-year growth of 45.84% to $18.9billion in the first half of the current fiscal year. Of this, cut and polished diamonds accounted for $12.71b, up 61.5%, while gold jewellery exports stood at $5.3b, up 20%. According to Sanjay Kothari, vice chairman of Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), though the growth in the main market of US was subdued, Indian diamond merchants were eating into the share of its competitors for exports to the world’s largest consumer of diamonds.

For the month of September, cut and polished diamond exports totalled $2.4b, up 36.4% from the same period last fiscal, while gold jewellery exports totalled $1.5b, up 113.5%. In the first half, the import of rough diamond was up 45% at $5.7 b while polished diamond import grew 72% at $8.4b. India is a leading manufacturer of diamonds, with 11 out of 12 diamonds being cut and polished here.

The government is also doing its bit to ensure that India becomes the global hub for diamond trade. It recently removed the search and seizure provision which gave income tax authorities power to seize the entire stock-in-trade if there was a discrepancy between books and actual stock held by the trade, and also allowed the industry to import roughs against advance remittance from companies such as Rio Tinto, Alrosa, in addition to Diamond Trading Company. These companies had refused to provide the roughs unless the local buyers remitted the whole amount first.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com