The government is mulling over setting up diamond bourses to make the country a global trading hub.
"It shall be our endeavour to make India, an international diamond trading hub and we plan to establish diamond bourses in the coming years," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said while unveiling the new Foreign Trade Policy.
Currently, there is only one diamond bourse in Mumbai with 2,500 offices. It is expected to be functional in the next six months, Sanjay Kothari, an official with Gems and Jewellery Promotion Council said.
India is the world's largest diamond cutting centre.
The diamond bourse would be different from the stock and commodity exchanges, he said.
Welcoming the government's plan on more diamond bourses, Gitanjali Gems Chairman and Managing Director Mehul Choksi said "the diamond bourses will provide a single platform for traders and it will make India more of a trading centre".
In the FTP, the government introduced a series of measures for improving the country's gems and jewellery exports, which has suffered since September 2008 due to global economic recession.
The government has decided to give duty drawback benefits on gold jewellery exports, the Policy said. Duty drawback means the rebate of duty chargeable on any imported materials or excisable materials used in making or processing of goods which are produced in India for export.
The government has also increased the value limit of personal carriage for participation in overseas exhibitions to $5 million from $2 million.
The limit in case of personal carriage, as samples, for export promotion tours, has also been increased to $1 million from USD 0.1 million it said.
India's gems and jewellery exports rose 13.52 per cent to Rs 95,092 crore (Rs 950.92 billion) during 2008-09 fiscal, compared with Rs 83,765 crore (Rs 837.65 billion) in the previous year, according GJEPC data.
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