The jewellery distributors go on with the protest against the Union government to press their demand for roll-back of excise duty on gold and studded silver jewellery. Rajendra Odhekar, president, Nashik Jewellers Association, said, "We have resumed our protest with a three-day strike to fight the excise duty on gold and studded silver jewellery.
We hope that the issue of excise duty on gold jewellery is discussed in the Parliament in the coming days. He added, "The opposition parties have also extended their support to our fight. We hope the Union government takes a positive decision on the matter." -According to a daily news paper. At the time presenting the union budget for the FY 2016-17 on Feb 29, Union Finance minister Arun Jaitely had introduced 1% excise on gold and studded jewellery.
After several rounds of talks with the government, the jewellers gave a proposal to cancel excise duty and levy additional 1% tax in Value Added Tax (VAT). Be subsequent to the government's assurance to take a positive decision on the issue, the jewellers had suspended their strike for 12 days from April 13 to 24. As government did not take any decision.