Jewellers and trade associations from across the country, led by the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) have called for a total bandh of all jewellery establishments from March 17- 19, 2012.

The action is to protest against the imposition of excise duty on the entire jewellery sector in the union budget 2012. In a release, the GJF has termed the decision as being similar to “the control measures that actually killed the sector between 1962 and 1992” and stressed that the trade is not in favour of the “inspector raj” it will bring in.

The GJF said that the industry was still struggling to recover from the after effects of the 2008 recession and the government’s proposal would “break the backbone of the industry”. Imposition of excise duty on Jewellery will shake the industry and rendered millions of self employed skilled artisans who do not have any alternate means of livelihood, jobless.

It described the “over four times increase the import duty on a commodity like gold” as “not a wise decision”.

The GJF had met the finance minister several times and appealed to him to abolish excise duty on both branded and unbranded jewellery. They will now approach the minister with a demand to roll back these measures with immediate effect.