chennai jewellery shops across tamil nadu will remain closed for a week from wednesday as a consortium of jewellers has decided to go on a strike in protest against the centres decision to double the import tax on gold bars union finance minister pranab mukherjee in his budget last month announced the increase of tax from 2 to 4 with an excise duty of 03 on unbranded jewellery jewellers and allied traders in mumbai and delhi have been on an indefinite strike since the announcement in tamil nadu around 60000 shops will down their shutters for a week unlike in the northern and western states the strike has been intermittent in tamil nadu gold retailers in the state went on a threeday strike immediately after the budget this was followed by a twoday strike last week akshaya tritiya the hindu auspicious day for buying gold is on april 24 rough estimates indicate the industry has lost almost rs 4000 crore in sales across the country in the last two weeks in tamil nadu the few days strike is estimated to have cost rs 600 crore business the sevenday shutdown would add another rs 700 crore to the losses in sales the customer stands to lose the maximum the imposition of import tax on gold bars and excise duty on unbranded jewellery would result in input cost going up by rs 1150 for every 10 gram and the customer paying an additional rs 1500 per 10 gram at tuesdays price of rs 26093 for 10 gram of gold in chennai with the wedding and festive season coming up jewellers are feeling the pinch marriage and engagement purchases involve payment of advance and delivery on assured dates as the situation is still fluid we have not taken many wedding orders and have lost some business on that account said a senior staff at joyalukkas a keralabased gold retail chain sales at the chain have dropped 50 in the last fortnight jewellers also see the strike affecting gold sales on akshaya tritiya a lot of goldsmiths are located in the northern and western states and many of them are on strike so there are no new products or designs in the offing says babu emmanuel chairman of okj the chain sources products from 50 manufacturers 38 of whom are located in the northern states okj which has two stores in chennai has registered a 50 dip in sales in the last two days