Union Budget 2022: Plain vanilla, unimpressive, say jewellers

Kumar Jain of IBJA at his shop in Dageena Bazar. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Jewellers have called this year's budget ‘vanilla', saying it barely has anything new, especially for traders and the common man. Kumar Jain, national spokesperson of India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd (IBJA), said, "We had three demands - reduction of tax, import duty and lower GST. We need to see that cash flow has reduced and digital payments are on the rise. The rural areas that are generally ignored account for 65 per cent of gold sales. In this Budget, the government has overlooked a lot of things, common man will not benefit."

"During Dhanteras last year, 45-55 tonnes of record-breaking sale of gold took place so gold market needs a boost and definitely has potential. The artisans in a 2-crore big industry of ours, are the worst hit and pandemic affected their lifestyle."

IBJA said reducing taxes would be a good package but is far from a long-term budget. In diamond, the import duty has been reduced to 5 per cent from 7.5 per cent, but gold prices were not reduced. With gold being a precious item, even the lower strata buy a minimum of at least 10 grams. In 2020, India had record exports of gold jewellery.

"Our artisans make one of the best and finest jewellery, they should have been thought about in this Budget. It is a plain vanilla budget that I would rate 5/10. In India, there is a big demand for gold and people want to invest in it as it can be easily encashed. It is unfortunate that no benefits have been extended to gold traders," added Jain.