new delhi seven jewellers sat on an indefinite hunger strike at chandni chowks kucha mahanjani on monday intensifying jewellers protest against the imposition of excise duty on unbranded jewellery levying tax collection at source and doubling of customs duty on gold jewellers in delhi said the strike would continue though the industry has reportedly incurred losses worth crores of rupees in the past 10 days every store has lost an approximate business of rs 1 to 2 crore we shall continue with the strike till the government announces a roll back of excise duty said shiv jindal director of jindal diamonds and gems the strike has prompted the confederation of all india traders to seek intervention of finance minister pranab mukherjee jewellers across the country have been on strike since march 17 while industry sources peg countrywide losses at over rs 10000 crore in the past 10 days city jewellers alone have incurred losses of almost rs 400 crore jewellers say the centres move is intended to curb the unproductive import of gold in the country and also boost its revenue customs duty on gold had been doubled from 1 to 2 earlier in january and then again to 4 in the budget besides imposing an excise duty of 1 on unbranded jewellery the budget also proposed that jewellers should collect 1 tax from all purchases exceeding rs 2 lakh jewellers say they are ready to pay extra however the imposition of excise duty will only increase chances of harassment by the excise department and smuggling for jewellers paying a 03 tax on transaction value is not a big deal but collecting taxes through the excise department will only lead to unwanted harassment and unnecessary raids said prashant saraf who has a store in karol bagh if excise duty is implemented the government will get a daily revenue boost of over rs 12 crore from delhi alone it is negligible compared to the losses the industry has incurred over the past 10 days said prem sharma general secretary of the delhi bullion and jewellers welfare association kucha mahajani another major concern is the impact on production some say levying excise duty would lead small artisans to desert the industry due to increased bookkeeping