Titan's jewellery division takes Rs 250-300 crore hit due to GST

NEW DELHI: Tata group firm Titan has said its July sales were impacted by the GST rollout as the company is likely to have taken a hit of Rs 250-300 crore during the current quarter.

"This year we had the disruption due to the introduction of the GST regime as well," the company said in a BSE filing. "July sales for at least the first half were clearly impacted by the advanced sales in the previous quarter (estimated at Rs 250-300 crore) due to the onset of GST," it said.

During the quarter, its jewellery division was also impacted from the applicability of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to the jewellery business, the company said. Although, the company has started complying with it, however, it said that it needs to be amended as the PMLA rules for the jewellery segment, as they are meant to apply to the banking and financial services sector.

"Industry representation is being made to relax the limit of Rs 50,000 on the grounds that the threshold is very low considering the price of gold and laundering, if any, would not be restored to at such low price point," it added.

While, its watch business has witnessed a good growth during the quarter, aided by the exceptional sales through online channels, said Titan in its quarterly update for the second quarter of FY2017-18. "This would mean that the store would need to collect KYC for all sales in excess of Rs 50,000 and would be subject to filing certain returns as applicable," it said.

While, in the eye wear segment, its Titan Eye Plus retail format continues to show healthy growth in Q2/FY 2017-18 and has added 21 stores during the period.