Jewellery shops threaten indefinite strike if VAT not lowered

Bangladesh Jewellers’ Association (BAJUS) today threatened to close down all jewellery shops indefinitely if their three-point demand is not entitled in the upcoming annual budget.

They demanded the value added tax (VAT) on gold and silver jewellery to be 1.5 percent, import tax on gold to be Tk 150 per bhori (11.66 grams), and formulation of a policy for gold.

Enamul Haque Khan, general secretary of Bangladesh Jewellers’ Association, made the demand at a press conference held at Jatiya Press Club this afternoon, reports Bangla daily Prothom Alo.

Government announced to implement ‘VAT and Supplementary Duty Act 2012’ from the next fiscal year, within which goods import, production and retail sale will have provision for VAT of 15 percent.

At present, customers have to pay 5 percent VAT on gold and silver jewellery, which was 3 percent before June 2015.

“The sale of jewellery has gone down due to the high price of gold and a 5 percent VAT on it. In India this rate is one percent. In Bangladesh, a customer has to pay Tk 50 thousand as VAT to buy Tk 10 lakh worth gold jewellery, whereas they can pay only Tk 10 thousand in India for the same amount of gold. Consumers in Bangladesh have become more interested to buy jewellery from India as visa availability and communication have improved,” said Enamul Haque Khan.

Jewelers will never accept it if a VAT of 15 percent is imposed on sale of gold in the upcoming budget, he also said, adding that in order to save this industry the VAT should be lowered to 1.5 percent from 5 percent and import duty on gold should be lowered from Tk 3000 to Tk 150 per bhori in the upcoming budget, with allowance to import up to 2 kilograms of gold bars at a time.

He also demanded for the formulation of a policy for jewellery industry, and said if the demands are not met in the budget for FY 2016-17 then all jewellery shops will close down indefinitely.

“We urge the government to meet our demands, otherwise we will announce our protest programs for the sake of our survival,” he said.

The jewellers’ association also announced to form human chains in front of Jatiya Press club in Dhaka and in front of the offices of upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and the deputy commissioner (DC) in every district on June 5 if their demands are not met.