The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has proposed the opening of a lab-grown diamond park on May 17, indicating that the lab-grown diamond industry has the potential to process an extra 150 million carats a year.
“Lab-grown diamonds have the potential to build and sustain a stronger and more self-reliant domestic cutting and polishing industry,” said Shri Colin Shah, GJEPC chairman, in a meeting with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
The new centre would also fall under India’s production-linked incentives (PLI) plan, which offers lower import duties and other benefits to foreign businesses to entice them to set up shops in the country. It would employ approximately one million workers and is expected to achieve annual revenue of INR 400 billion ($5.1 billion).
The GJEPC also asked the government to consider permitting the industry to import lab-grown diamond machinery at a lower, concessional rate for a one-year period. The long-term goal is for the Indian sector to manufacture the machines, the GJEPC explained.
To maintain a distinction between cut-and-polished lab-grown and natural diamonds, the GJEPC would employ a tracking system for the synthetic stones to allow it to monitor the supply chain.
24-5-2022
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