The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) met Manish Kumar, Chief Commissioner of Customs, Delhi, at its Mumbai head office on August 24, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman nominated him to engage directly with the industry over customs bottlenecks in rough diamond trade.

The meeting followed an earlier interaction between Sitharaman and GJEPC leadership, in which the Minister directed Kumar to visit Mumbai and assess the issues firsthand.

Industry representatives used the session to press a specific demand: an end to the continued use of 100% physical checking of rough diamond consignments, particularly at Mumbai Customs. GJEPC called for wider use of the Risk Management System (RMS), with assessments weighted by the compliance track record of individual importers and exporters, rather than blanket examination.

Kumar agreed that a risk-based approach could cut unnecessary checking while preserving safeguards against revenue leakage — a preliminary concession industry representatives had been seeking.

GJEPC also flagged inconsistent checking standards between Mumbai and Surat, and raised concerns that minor discrepancies in weight or description were triggering misdeclaration proceedings disproportionate to the underlying error.

GJEPC was represented by Chairman Kirit Bhansali, Vice Chairman Shaunak Parikh, Diamond Panel Convener Anoop Mehta, PMBD Convener Ashish Borda, BITC Convener Mital Doshi and Executive Director Sabyasachi Ray, along with Bharat Diamond Bourse Vice President Mehul Shah and Customs Convener Anup Zaveri.

Kumar said the issues would be examined with customs formations in Mumbai and Surat, and asked GJEPC to submit a consolidated flow chart of the rough diamond trade process along with a formal list of the concerns raised.