IIJS May Move to a New Venue in 2018

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Q. How has the response been for the IIJS-2016?

We have seen a good amount of footfall from day one. Buyers have placed orders for the upcoming festival and wedding season. More than 2,000 foreign visitors have registered and 15 overseas delegations have arrived. Overall the trend is positive.

Q. The machinery section has been shifted to a new venue this year - your comments.

The existing venue where the machinery section used to be conducted is under renovation and not available to us. Hence, we had to move the machinery section to Hotel Lalit, which is not very far from the existing venue.

Q. The historic GST Bill has been passed in the Rajya Sabha and now it is expected to be implemented from April 1, 2017 - your comments.

GST is the second biggest reform in India since independence. The first one being the economic reform in 1991, wherein the License Raj was dismantled and the economy was opened up for foreign investments. The GST Bill will make India as one single market. It will bring ease of doing business. There is lots of speculation about the rate percentage of GST on jewellery but as of now, no rate has been fixed on the gold and jewellery sector. The government has formed a GST committee to look into the issue of fixing the GST slabs on various commodities, services and goods. We expect that there will be no major impact on the gem and jewellery industry and there might be a reduction in the custom duty on gold to make room for a higher GST on jewellery.