Jewellery shops in the city will remain “indefinitely” closed from Wednesday to protest finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s “less than clear” assurance to roll back the proposals related to the industry in this year’s budget.

The Swarna Shilpa Bachao Committee, to which most jewellery shops are affiliated, called the strike on Tuesday.

Jewellers across the nation had gone on a strike on March 17 to protest the proposals, which include an increase in customs duty. The strike was withdrawn in Bengal after state industries minister Partha Chatterjee had assured the committee on March 23 that chief minister Mamata Banerjee would look into the demands.

“Since then, the state has sent a letter to the finance minister. Other MPs too asked him about his decision today but he gave no clear answer. That’s why we are going on strike again,” said Bablu De, the working president of the committee, on Tuesday.

Bachraj Bamalwa of Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons, the chairman of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation, said: “The finance minister said he was considering an alternative formula. We don’t want that. We want a total rollback of the proposals. Jewellers in many parts of the country have been continuing the strike. In Calcutta, we had lifted the strike on the basis of what the state government had said but now shops are going to be closed across India till the proposals are rolled back.”

The finance minister had proposed that the customs duty be increased from 2 per cent to 4 per cent for standard gold and from 5 per cent to 7 per cent for non-standard gold. He also proposed a tax deduction at source on purchase of bullion jewellery above Rs 2 lakh and central excise of 1 per cent for unbranded jewellery.