Possible 10-fold increase in Turkish jewelry exports

ANKARA-ISTANBUL

Turkey’s jewelry exports may increase by ten-fold to $15-20 billion in the next five years, following a planned deregulation move by the Finance Ministry, where private consumption tax on imported jewelry raw materials will be reduced by 20 percent, sector representatives said.

The highly anticipated regulation is expected to come into effect by the beginning of 2014, according to Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek advice in October of last year.

“This move will enable us without doubt to increase our annual exports up to $25-30 billion in just five years from around $2.5-3 billion as the existing private consumption tax on imported raw materials has created a heavy burden on the industry, heavily reducing competitiveness. We will not need to pay the current amount of tax as soon as the planned regulation takes effect, and this is great news to us,” said head of the Jewelry Exporters Association, Ayhan Güner, in a written statement issued yesterday.

Turkey exports jewelry to around 200 countries, but sector representatives have been complaining about the low levels of production resulting from high taxes on imported raw materials.

“With an increase in private consumption on imported precious stones, Turkish jewelry producers could then increase levels of production significantly,” Güner said.

The Finance Ministry plans to impose a hike in value added tax on jewelry by 18 percent, which has been zero for a long time.

Turkey is now the world’s third largest global producer after India and China, with around 180 tons of jewelry produced annually, according to the latest sector report by Euromonitor.