After 18 days of continuous strike by jewelers against the tax amendment on Gold Ornaments, hundreds and thousands of jewelers of Udaipur are still protesting by keeping their business close and demanding the removal of excise duty.

A protest rally was carried out today by Sarafa Association of Udaipur and Chamber of Commerce Udaipur division which concluded at the office of Divisional Commissioner where members of the organization presented a memorandum to Subodh Kumar, Divisional Commissioner written in the name of the President of India.

Due to ongoing chaos, both jewelers and government are facing loss as there is no business activity going on since the last fortnight. In Udaipur the loss is estimated to be more than 100 crores.

The rally was led by key members of the association including Inder Singh Mehta, Madan Makhija, Paras Singhvi and Ganesh Daglia.

“We will continue our protest and tomorrow we are going to meet excise commissioner for the same,” says Inder Singh Mehta patron of the association.

With the heavy police force deployed outside the Divisional Commissioner’s office, the agitated protestors warned for more aggressive protest in coming days if their demands are not fulfilled.

“All jewelers are already paying more than dozen of different taxes to the government and government is still expecting more profit from us,” said Mohan Makhija.