Surat diamond polishers warn of stir over professional tax

R M Gamit, assistant commissioner of SMC who holds the charge of professional tax department, said, they issued notices to around 3,000 firms in Varachha area, most of which were diamond units. Following this, the diamond factory owners have approached the SDA and Surat Ratnakalakar Sangh, which have assured them to take up the issue with the state government.

SDA president Dinesh Navadia said they had written to Chief Minister Rupani a month ago. “We urged him to direct the SMC to charge professional tax only on the employees who were on fixed salaries like managers and office staffers. The diamond polishers regularly switch their jobs. Hence, we want the SMC to keep them out of the purview of professional tax. We will again hold a meeting with the state government in the coming days.” Gamit said, they had not received any intimation from the state government to waive the levy. “So it is our duty to recover professional tax from the diamond industries. It is up to the owners to deducted it from the wages of the diamond polishers. Last year we had collected Rs 24 crore. This year we have collected Rs 26 crore against a total target of Rs 30 crore.”

Surat Ratnakalakar Sangh president Jaysukh Gajera said they were totally against the professional tax on the diamond factories. “We had earlier urged the municipal commissioner to waive the tax but nothing was done. If it continues, the diamond polishers will go on strike and protest on road.”

According to the sources, there are over 3,500 small, medium and big diamond factories in Surat city where over 6 lakh people work. The annual turnover of the export-oriented industry is around Rs 1 lakh crore. Gamit said small diamond factories employed around 20-25 polishers while big units had thousands of workers. “Still the big unit owners regularly paid professional taxes, but there was problem with the medium and small factories. Our teams are raiding the defaulting factories along with security personnel to seal them. But many have paid taxes on the spot. We will continue the drive.”

Small diamond factory owners claimed that their workers were not permanent as they changed jobs frequently. So it is difficult for them keep a record of the workers and pay taxes accordingly.