Diamond manufacturers in turmoil

After five years of exemption, most of the 21 diamond cutting and polishing company will from this month   be obliged   to pay 0.2 percent of their turnover to government through the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) as training levy.

 While observers assert that the 0.2 percent is a small amount for a sector that does not pay a lot of taxes, industry insiders told BusinessWeek that their already troubled industry is a high turnover, high costs but low profit margin business and cannot therefore cushion the effects of any more taxes.