Swamy meets jewelers, fights for them

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday met a delegation of jewelers at his residence in New Delhi over the issue of excise duty on jewelry. He has promised them to take up their case with the important functionaries in the government and the party.

He later tweeted the same: “On excise tax on jewellery I have taken it up with the party and the government. Some acceptable compromise will be worked out I was told.”

In fact, he had taken up the cause of jewelers even before they had approached him. Speaking to a news agency, he said a few days ago, “I also think it is a wrong thing because if you [government] want some Rs 200 or Rs 300 crore of revenue, there are other ways through the VAT, which will not affect the common people and it would also not discourage them from buying jewelry during the festive season.”

According to Swamy, the government is “unnecessarily creating the situation where these jewelers will be harassed by income tax people or sales tax people or excise tax people. I am totally against it.”

In their interaction with the senior BJP leader, jewelers said that his support for them has reignited hope among them, as they were given the cold shoulder by the government as well as the party. This, they said, has created a lot of resentment against the BJP within the trading community which has been traditionally pro-BJP.