Ukraine includes top Indian diamond producer in list of ‘sponsors of the war’

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, September 15

The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) of Ukraine has included Indian diamond manufacturer Shree Ramkrishna Exports (SRK) in the list of “international sponsors of war”.

“NAPC has included one of the world’s largest diamond manufacturing and exporting companies, Shree Ramkrishna Exports (SRK), in the list of “international sponsors of war”,” NAPC said in a statement.

Almost 95 per cent of the world’s diamonds are made in India. According to the NAPC, the company’s annual revenue is more than $ 1.3 billion. SRK, after acquiring rough diamonds, performs cutting, polishing and classification, and then exports them. However, SRK may be importing some of the rough diamonds from the Russian company Alrosa, the world’s biggest producer of diamonds by volume.

Surprisingly, Ukraine’s backers in the conflict with Russia also do not plan to include Indian diamond polishers in the import ban on Russian diamonds in the next 2-3 weeks. The G7 is planning three layers of control and blockchain systems that will generate two G7 certificates for rough and polished items and only then will the goods be allowed to freely circulate within the G7.

“The Indian polishers can polish whatever they want but (Russian gems) need to be segregated … At the point when the polished diamond is offered for export, the reference will be made to the original rough, again using a combination of physical inspection and traceability data,” an official told agencies in Brussels. African diamond producers will also be exempted.

Belgium does not want the extra cost to fall on consumers and jewellers, or to limit the stones that India cuts.