Indian Bullion traders and Jewellers back to business after 21-day strike

New Delhi, Apr 7 (PTI) Indian bullion traders and jewellers opened their shops today, after calling off a 21-day nationwide strike Friday, as the country's government assured them that their demand for rollback of excise duty on non-branded jewellery will be looked into. "Most of the jewellery shops in the country have opened this morning," All India Sarafa Association president Sheel Chand Jain told PTI. The wholesale bullion markets in the metros, including Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai and Chandni Chowk in Delhi were back to business. In Delhi, the bullion market opened with gold quoting at Rs 28,410 (about USD 570) per 10 gm. However, traders reported thin business. Retail jewellers too resumed business in most parts of the country except some places in Maharashtra as traders had come to Mumbai for attending a pre-scheduled rally, Bombay Bullion Association President Prithviraj Kothari said. Traders are estimated to have lost Rs 200.0 billion (about USD 4.0 billion) due to the strike, while loss to the exchequer was about Rs 12.0 billion (about USD 240 million) in revenues. Jewellers, however, have warned the government that they would resume strike if the proposal to levy excise duty of one per cent is not withdrawn in the Finance Bill, which is expected to come up before Parliament early next month. The strike from March 17 followed the Indian Government's Budget proposals presented in Parliament a day earlier. They included doubling of import duty on gold to 4 per cent. India, the world's largest gold consumer, imported 967 tonnes of the precious metal in 2011. Gold is the second biggest commodity imported by India after crude oil, adding to the country's current account deficit. The government has maintained that the import duty hike has been proposed to cut the country's gold imports. PTI