Jewellery demand to touch $ 30 bn by 2015

New Delhi, Sep 23: Driven by the growing consumption of gems and jewellery in the country, jewellery demand is expected to touch 30 billion dollars by 2015 and will generate additional employment for three lakh workers annually, an industry chamber said.

Country's consumption of gems and jewellery grew by over 11 per cent over the last five years. The jewellery market was estimated at 13.5 billion dollars in fiscal 2006-07.

Demand of diamonds jewellery rose at a CAGR of nearly 44 per cent and stood at about 2.5 billion dollars in 2006-07, according to industry chamber Assocham.

''Diamond jewellery consumption is likely to jump to nearly 80 per cent in 2010 and over 95 per cent between 2010 and 2015,'' Assocham President Venugopal N Dhoot said.

India consumes nearly 800 tonnes of gold, accounting for 20 per cent of world gold consumption, of which nearly 600 tonnes go into jewellery making indicating the importance and economies of scale for jewellery sector particularly in India, Mr Dhoot said All possible measures should be put in place so that the current demand trend for jewellery is further augmented as per forecast and projections made, he added.

The jewellery sector could alone have potential to add nearly three lakh additional jobs every year, the body claimed.

The chamber suggested that since gems and jewellery industry has its dependence on skilled labour and trained manpower, professional institutions need to be set up so that further value addition is effected on domestic gems and jewellery to competently absorb the demand factor as also enhance their exports.

Secondly, the taxation burden on this sector is multi-layered which need to be curtailed and made simplified with diamonds grading.

On exports front of gems and jewellery, the Assocham is apprehensive that this year's exports targets would be adversely affected if the rupee appreciation against dollar is not judiciously arrested.

It has recommended that recent sops announced by the government to arrest the possible fall of gems and jewellery exports, including those of cut and polished diamonds should be implemented so that exporters do not loose their edge in US, Belgium, Isreal, Hong Kong, UAE, Singapore, Thailand and Switzerland markets.

UNI