OREANDA-NEWS  India has called on the G7 countries to postpone the ban on Russian diamonds. This is reported by the Indian edition of The Economic Times, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The rules for tracing the origin of precious stones remain unclear, which makes it impossible to impose restrictions on indirect imports from Russia over the next 3-4 months, they argued.

India also expressed its doubts about the new system of "verification and certification based on tracing (origin)", which may require data exchange with Indian enterprises, one of the sources said. According to him, some data may be confidential, and it is inconvenient for businesses to share such information.

In December, the G7 countries announced the introduction of a direct ban on the import of Russian diamonds from January 2024, and from March – diamonds cut from them in other countries. The main one is India, which accounts for 90% of the global diamond cutting and polishing industry.

The G7 intends to introduce a ban on direct and indirect imports of Russian diamonds weighing more than 1 carat from March 2024, and from September the ban will affect diamonds weighing more than 0.5 carats. At the same time, in September, it is planned to introduce a system for tracking the origin of stones, presumably based on blockchain.

India mainly processes small Russian diamonds, which is why the country expects minimal disruptions in trade, a government official said earlier, The Economic Times recalls. However, according to industry representatives, the proposed ban will affect the diamond supply chain.

The Indian diamond cutting industry is under pressure due to a reduction in demand for diamonds amid the global economic downturn, which forced Indian cutters to request a 2-month suspension of purchases from diamond miners - from October 15 to December 15. Diamond exports from the country fell by 29% to $10 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, which began in April.