Tanishq hopes for duty rationalisation on gold imports
Tue July 16 2024
Tanishq, the jewellery retail brand of Titan Company, is hoping for rationalisation in duty on gold imports in the Budget for 2024-25, to be presented next week. “Unofficial gold is coming into the country due to high duties and is causing too much discounting of gold,” Ajoy Chawla, CEO, jewellery, Titan Company, told FE.
In January, the finance ministry had hiked the import duty on gold and silver findings and precious metal coins to 15% from the earlier 11%. The decision was aimed at eliminating the tax advantage gold and silver findings enjoy at the cost of bars. The sharp increase in gold prices does not pose a significant problem for the jewellery market, Chawla said. “
Despite a jump of around 20% in gold prices in the last one year and the doubling of prices in the last five years, the CAGR on the jewellery buyers has registered a double digit growth of around 12% for these five years. The gold price hike may trouble the customer in the short term, but in the long term it increases the customer’s interest in gold.”He was speaking on the sidelines of an event
to celebrate Tanishq’s expansion of services to more than 300,000 families in Ahmedabad alone — contributing 2% of its overall business. Chawla said the Indian jewellery market has a customer base of around 100 million, spread across various consumer groups. “Which is why we are aiming to target a wide variety of consumers through our brands like Tanishq, Mia and Caratlane. Tanishq is focused on classical and mainstream customers, Mia focuses on Gen Z customers (for whom Mia has launched 14 and 18 carat jewellery), while Caratlane is aiming to cater to the modern and millennial customers.”
The company is planning to add 60-70 stores in the coming months, he said. Titan at present has around 1,000 jewellery stores across its brands like Tanishq (470), Caratlane (218), Mia (200) and Zoya (8).
On the overseas front, Chawla said the focus is on West Asia and North America. “Our target is to focus on the Indian customers living outside India. We already have four stores in the USA (New Jersey, Chicago, Houston and Dallas) and some more stores are coming that will cover the west coast, Virginia and Atlanta.”
Source: https://www.financialexpress.com