Udupi : Jewellery establishments closed their shops on Wednesday to observe a bandh to protest against the mandatory requirement of PAN card on purchase of jewellery and gems worth Rs. two lakh and above.   

The members of the Udupi Jewellers’ Association took out a silent procession from the Car Street, which passed through the City Bus Stand and Service Bus Stand. Later they submitted a memorandum addressed to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office. In the memorandum, the association said that the mandatory requirement of PAN card for any mode of payment of over Rs. 2 lakh was causing inconvenience to the customers and affecting the business of jewellery establishments.

The number of PAN card holders is about 22.5 crore in the country. Nearly 70 per cent of the jewellery industry thrive in semi-urban and rural areas, where people do not have PAN cards, the memorandum added.

The average purchase of gold jewellery for a marriage was about 250 grams, which costs Rs. 7.5 lakh. If PAN cards were made mandatory, families could purchase only 70 grams of gold jewellery at Rs. 2 lakh.

This could result in some unscrupulous jewellers resorting to non-billed cash transactions. The PAN card requirement would kill the retail sector and the value chain along with it. This would also rob the small artisans of their livelihood.

The government should make PAN card mandatory for purchase of jewellery of Rs. 5 lakh and above, the memorandum said. G. Jaya Acharya, president of the assocation, Alevoor Yogish Acharya, vice-president of the association and others were present.

Meanwhile, jewellery shops in Mangaluru too observed a bandh.

The jewellers, under the auspices of South Kanara District Swarna Vyapari Sangha, took out a procession from the Temple Square in Car Street to the office of Deputy Commissioner and submitted a memorandum.

The memorandum said that the Union government has misunderstood gold/bullion with jewellery. Jewellery was for consumption, while gold/bullion was for investment. It requested the government not to make PAN card requirement mandatory.