Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Mangaluru, Mar 15: In this year's union budget, an excise duty of 1 percent (without input tax credit) and 12.5% (with input tax credit) has been imposed on articles of jewellery. Some doubts have been expressed by the trade and industry regarding this levy and to clear these doubts, Central excise commissioner M Subramanyam held a press meet at the central excise office here on Tuesday March 15.

Addressing media persons, Subramanyam said, "There has been lot of confusion among jewellery traders regarding the new levy, even though it is a simple levy. According to this new levy, there is provision for online application for registration, payment of excise duty and filing of returns with zero interface with the departmental officers. The central excise officers have been directed by the ministry not to visit premises of jewellery manufactureres.

"Articles of silver jewellery (other than those studded with diamonds, ruby, emerald or sapphire) are exempt from this duty. An artisan or goldsmith who only makes jewellery on job demand basis is not required to register with the central excise, pay duty and file returns, as all these obligations are on the principal manufacturers only," he said.

"There is a substantially high small scale industries excise duty exemption limit of Rs 6 crore in a year along with a higher eligibility limit of Rs 12 crore. Thus, only if the turnover of a jeweller during the preceding financial year was more than Rs 12 crore, will he be liable to pay the excise duty. Jewellers having turnover below Rs 12 crore during the preceding financial year will be eligible for exemption upto Rs 6 crore during next financial year. Such small jewellers will be eligible for exemption upto Rs 50 lac for the month of March, 2016," he added.

"For determination of eligibility for the SSI exemption for the month of March, 2016 or financial year 2016-17, a certificate from a chartered accountant, based on the books of accounts for 2014-15 and 2015-16, would be sufficient. Further, facility of optional centralized registration has also been provided. Thus, there is no need for a jewellery manufacturer to take separate registrations for all his premises. Field formations have been directed to grant hassle-free registrations, within two working days of submission of the registration application.

"Further, there will be no post-registration physical verification of the premises. The jeweller's private records or records for state VAT or records for Bureau of Indian Standards will be accepted for all central excise purposes. Also, there is no requirement to file a stock declaration to the jurisdictional central excise authorities. Excise duty is to be paid on monthly basis and not each sale, with first installment of duty payment for the month of March, 2016 to be paid by March 31, 2016. A simplified quarterly return has also been prescribed, for duty paying jewellers. Moreover, simplified export procedure is available for exempted units. So the jewellery traders need not fear since the levy is only for the manufacturer," he explained.