The India Diamond Trading Centre (IDTC), the Special Notified Zone (SNZ) for trading in rough diamonds, was inaugurated by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India at the BDB premises on December 20, 2015. Special Guests present on the occasion included Jean-Marc Lieberherr, MD, Rio Tinto Diamonds, Andrey Polyakov, VP, Alrosa and Marcus Lung, Senior Sales Manager (Asia Pacific), De Beers.

The IDTC SNZ is spread across 4,000 sqft at the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), with nine fully equipped viewing rooms, a strong room, a conference room, and state-of-the-art security systems. The three major mining companies – De Beers, Alrosa and Rio Tinto, who have all carried out trial viewing programmes in the SNZ over the previous month, expressed their appreciation of the facility.

Speaking on the occasion, Praveenshankar Pandya, Chairman GJEPC said the opening of the IDTC was a very important step for the Indian diamond industry, though there were some taxation issues that still needed to be settled before full-fledged trading could commence. He added that he was hopeful that these would be sorted out if the presumptive taxation system proposed by the industry was accepted in the next budget.

“The creation of SNZs and regular availability of direct supply of roughs in the country itself, will not only save time and effort for the diamond manufacturers, but it will also minimise middlemen commissions and eventually result in overall cost reductions,” Pandya said, adding that it would primarily benefit the SME segment, who constitute a very important part of the industry.

The GJEPC Chairman also said that the SNZ would not only help the large mining companies who have already firmed up their programme of participation for 2016, but also would be beneficial to smaller miners who will find it more cost-effective to sell directly to the eventual manufacturers. Similar zones could subsequently be set up in other centres of the industry such as Surat and Jaipur, he added.

Pandya also touched briefly on some of other issues of the industry and requested the minister to ensure appropriate government action. These included the need for a presumptive taxation scheme that would take into account low margins on which the industry operated; a mechanism that would give SMEs greater access to bank finance; a reintroduction of the interest subvention support during the current crisis confronting the industry due to slack demand in key international markets; for government support to generic promotion campaigns that would boost demand for diamonds and for a framework that would help distinguish the natural diamond trade from the one in synthetic diamonds.

Congratulating the industry on its achievements, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, said, “The IDTC inauguration on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia next week is significant, as the policy was announced by him at the World Diamond Conference in Delhi in the presence of Shri Putin last year.”

She assured the industry of support from the government. “This industry is a very important sector as it provides a huge amount of employment, and accounts for 13% of merchandise exports,” she said, adding that she would take up the taxation issue and look into other points raised by the Chairman.

In his address, Jean-Marc Lieberherr commented, “IDTC is an important step to building a more efficient supply chain. It has fantastic facilities, and we were happy to be the first to use them.”

He also praised the smooth functioning of the SNZ and said it has certainly added to the “ease of doing business”.

Speaking on the occasion, Andrey Polyakov said, “Alrosa stepped up its direct dealings with India at the time of the 2008-09 crisis and the relationship has grown steadily since then.”

He added that the company had sold nearly US$ 2.5 billion of rough to Indian companies in 2014 and subsequently added 12 new clients. He expressed his belief that the SNZ would further strengthen the bonds between India and Russia in the diamond industry.

Anoop Mehta, President, BDB proposed the Vote of Thanks, and made special mention of the government support that the industry has received. He also particularly appreciated the Customs officials who have put in place the SOPs that ensured operations at the SNZ proceeded in the smoothest possible manner.