Won’t be hit by US tariffs, says Kalyan Jewellers

CHENNAI: Kalyan Jewellers, which is a B2C retailer with operations focused on the domestic market, would not be impacted by the US tariffs, said Ramesh Kalyanaraman, ED, Kalyan Jewellers.

“We do not have an export business, and therefore, the recently imposed 26 per cent export tariff on Indian jewellery has no direct bearing on our operations,” he sought to point out.

On the gold metal loan (GML) rates in India, he said his company saw a temporary increase from around 3.5 per cent to around 5 per cent during the recently concluded quarter, largely due to uncertainty surrounding a potential bullion tariff in the US. “Now that it has been clarified that no tariff will be imposed on bullion, GML rates are expected to normalise in the near term,” he added.

Incidentally, Kalyan Jewellers operates one store in the US, with expansion plans in place. But Kalyanaraman is confident that its “US inventory is sourced entirely from our UAE hub, and therefore, the tariff on Indian jewellery does not affect our operations. The UAE-to-US export tariff is at 10 per cent, but this represents a marginal differential. As a retailer, any pricing realignment will be absorbed within standard market mechanisms.”