Customs makes inclusion of district level export data mandatory; exports suffer

On the 5^th of February, a circular from the customs was sent to the exporters to furnish the state of the origins of goods, district of origin of goods, details of preferential agreements under which the goods are being exported wherever applicable and standard unit quantity code (SQC) for that CTH as per the first schedule of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.  The said rules were made mandatory since the 15^th of February.

The new mandate issued by the customs has really impacted the industry – no jewellery has been exported since Saturday.  As a result, the industry is incurring a big loss. “The gems and jewellery industry is very unique. When a jewellery is designed, a lot of mixing happens and it is practically impossible to ascertain the source of each and every stone and raw material,” said Sabyasachi Ray, Executive Director, GJEPC. The council has addressed the Government asking them to defer the newly introduced rules.

The production and manufacturing of jewellery changes hands, from one state to the other and the raw material sourced to manufacture jewellery also differs from state to state. “We have asked the government to allow the exporters to carry on their exports by mentioning the port of export as the origin and accordingly mention the district and state,” said Ray.

In the meanwhile, the exporters are also having a major challenge in uploading all the data regarding the origin of various raw materials of their jewellery. “Till the time we hear back from the government, we are currently orienting the industry with the process,” added Ray.