In a notification issued, the CBEC, Government of India has allowed three laboratories with operations in India granted duty exemption on cut and polished diamonds imported for the purposes of ‘grading or certification and re-export out of India’, reports say. The three labs include - Gemological Institute of America (Mumbai), Indian Diamond Institute (Surat) and the International Institute of Diamond Grading and Research India (Surat). The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has informed the diamantaires of the same, reports say.

The labs need to follow some procedures to avail of the exemption as mentioned in the notification. The procedures include amongst others - allotting a 'unique control number' to each batch, detailed descriptions of goods being imported, submitting a quarterly statement with addressing import and re-export parcels to be prepared before the 25th of the month following the end of the quarter, etc. The dimaonds are to be re-exported within three months from the exact same port where they were imported, reports add.