N. Ananthapadmanabhan, south region chairman of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, has said that unhealthy competition is driving the retail gold trading in South India into a crisis.
“To find solutions to the problem, a joint meeting of the gold merchants associations of all southern States should be convened immediately,” Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan said while addressing a leadership camp of the All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants Association in Alappuzha on Sunday.
In a statement released here on Monday, association general secretary Ram Mohan Kamat said Mr. Ananthapadmanabhan had demanded a uniformity in tax structure, police recovery norms, implementation of Bureau of Indian Standards and legal metrology rules and labour cess in all States. Association State president B. Govindan said that while Kerala collected the highest tax on gold retail sales, the State got only a share of 8 per cent on imported bullion.
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