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02 Dec 2017

Three Palanpuris Speak at GJEPC's 1st Gold & Jewellery Summit

Panel with Mehul Choksi (ext right) and Ashish Bobby Kothari (5th fm left)

Panel with Rohan Shah (2nd fm right)

There were three members of the Palanpuri community who made presentations at the recently concluded 1st Gold & Jewellery Summit organised by The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) at Delhi on December 1-2, 2017.

The conference brought together representatives of the government, including the Hon’ble Minister of Commerce, Shri Suresh Prabhu, as well as the Commerce and Finance Secretary with members of the gold and jewellery industry from India and abroad to deliberate on issues facing the industry today.

On the first day of the summit, Mehul Choksi and Ashish Bobby Kothari, from leading diamond jewellery manufacturers Gitanjali Group and Jewelex respectively, were participants in the opening Panel Discussion on “Vision 2022: Indian Jewellery Exports at US$ 25 Billion”. After brief presentations from each of the panelists, including Choksi and Kothari, there was an intense discussions on what were the key requirements for the industry to achieve its goal.

Advocate Rohan Shah, a legal expert who has been a consultant to the diamond and jewellery industry on various taxation and policy issues participated in a Panel Discussion on the effects of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and later also made a presentation on the new regime of GST for the Gold and Jewellery industry. Shah’s well reasoned and in-depth presentation of the industry viewpoint to a panel that included Mr Balesh Kumar, Principal ADG & DG of GSTI as well as Mr D.K. Gupta, Special Director, Enforcement Directorate, won him spontaneous applause from the audience.

In a spontaneous gesture from the assembled jewellers, Shah, who has also represented the industry position to the government on Excise duty and other issues, was called back on stage and specially felicitated by the representatives of the jewellery trade associations gathered at the seminar. When specially thanked for his interventions despite not being a member of the trade, Shah responded in a slightly lighter vein, saying, “I am a Palanpuri, and even if I am not directly involved with the business, diamonds and jewellery run in my veins.”