Mumbai: All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), national nodal trade body for the promotion and growth of trade in gems and jewellery across India, welcomed the Government’s decision to keep Gems & Jewellery Industry out of the ambit of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Over the past few weeks, GJF along with Industry delegates had series of meeting with Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Directorate General of Goods and Service Tax Intelligence (DGGSTI), BJP President Amit Shah and with NITI Aayog and represented their concerns on this issue.

As per Notification No. 4/2017 dated 23.08.2017, the Central Government notified the dealer in precious metals, precious stones and other high value goods having a turnover of rupees two crore in a financial year as a person carrying on designated business or profession.

As a consequence of the above, various compliances under the PMLA were required to be undertaken by the Gems and Jewellery sector, which was to be overseen by the DGGSTI. Critical amongst these, were the requirement under Rule 9 of the PMLA Rules, whereby a reporting entity must verify the identity of its clients, via a KYC process, for every transaction of Rs. 50,000 or more (whether conducted as a single transaction or several transactions that appear to be connected).

Mr. Nitin Khandelwal, Chairman, said, “This is really a great news for the Industry and we are thankful to Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley and Amit Shah. Over the past 20 days we had met each and every department and key personals in the Government. The support that we got from various associations and chain store owners on this concern was phenomenal. This is really a proud moment for our industry and we look forward to good business during festive season.”