Comments
Weeks after mandatory hall marking was introduced, the jewellery industry is in a tizzy, with no clarity on a lot of fresh provisions introduced.
Hallmarking has been made mandatory in 256 districts from June 16.
Nitin Khandelwal, Past Chairman, the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council, said there is a huge unrest in the industry as the Government had confirmed that Hallmarking Unique Identification (HUID) would only be restricted to Hallmarking centre and and not apply to jewellers.
However, there is still no clarity on this as the process involves jewellers in certain elements of HUID, he said. “We are still facing problems and cannot get our jewellery hallmarked anywhere,” he added.
‘Huge disconnect’
Along with earlier approved three karatages, 20, 23 and 24 k were also agreed by the Minister and DG, BIS, this has not been made part of the order released by BIS while a gazette notification is being awaited. There is still no clarity on how the mandatory hallmarking regime will work outside the 256 districts, said Khandelwal.
“There is a huge disconnect between what was agreed by the Minister and what is presented to the industry,” he said.
Bombay HC refuses to stay mandatory gold jewellery hallmarking
Saiyam Mehra, Vice-Chairman, GJC, said the applicability of hallmarking continues to loom as dark clouds of uncertainty over the industry. Wholesalers and manufacturers, who generally stock jewellery in thousands, are unable to get their jewellery hallmarked as the hallmarking centres under the current procedure are not able to give required output, he said.
Status of old stock
The new HUID process being implemented may take weeks or months to get jewellery hallmarked. The industry has still not received any official clarity on the status of their old stock in trade, he added.
BIS had three meetings with around 20 members of the Expert Committee wherein all the elements that the industry found impractical were discussed. The BIS team headed by the DG principally agreed with the industry with regard to a large majority of the concerns and asked the industry to be patient. Jewellers were allowed to sell their existing non-hallmarked stock till August 30.
However, all these important concerns are missing in the order and this has created a scenario of unrest and panic in the industry, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.