The people seemed relieved on Wednesday after the jewellers who had the shutters of their shops pulled down since March 2 as part of agitation against the Centre slapping 1 per cent excise duty on the non-silver ornaments called off the strike on Tuesday.
The marriage season approaching nearer, the people of Dehradun rushed to the jewellery shops to purchase ornaments on Wednesday soon after the shops opened. However, the jewellers warned that they would go for the shutdown again in case the Centre does not revoke the excise duty. They would meet on April 25 to chalk out their future course of action.
One of the member of Jewellers’ Association of Uttaranchal said that the strike was suspected for a whole as they are not against the people but were protesting against the Central Government.
The decision on suspension of 42 days’ stir was taken because people were facing difficulty to purchase ornaments with the jewellery shops in the state remaining closed.
JAU vice- president Sunil Masson said that jewellers across the country decided to suspend their stir till April 24 after people’s problems were taken into consideration as well as receiving some assurances from the Central Government. There was loss of 3500 crore of business during 42 days of protest in the State and State’s revenue loss was of around Rs 1200 crore due to shutter of jewellers’ shops in the State.
He said that the Centre should immediately roll back the decision and raise the limit of requirement of PAN card for jewellery transaction from Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 10 lakh. He warned that they would continue their stir after April 25 if Centre does not withdraw excise duty on gold and diamond-studded gold ornaments and other demands.
Masson said that large number of customers reached shops in the city and purchased jewellery. Most of customers who had made advance payment for jewelleries reached his shop on Wednesday and collected jewelleries. They could not collect it due to strike. As marriage season is approaching, the sale of jewelleries is expected to increase in coming days in the State, he added.
Dharampur resident Rashmi who was coming out from a jewellery shop at Paltan Bazar said that she purchased jewellers for giving gift to my friend getting married after five days. She could not purchase it earlier because jeweller shops were shut down. People suffer a lot due to jewellers’s strike.