Chaos, unrest over Hallmarking

GJC plea to Piyush Goyal to clear the disconnect

NEW DELHI, July 5 (The CONNECT) - The Hallmarking has been made mandatory since 16th June 16, but till date there is no clarity on important aspects, says All India Gem & Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC).

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Piyush Goyal had confirmed during a meeting with GJC on June 15 that HUID (Hallmarking Unique ID) would only be restricted to Hallmarking centre, and not on jewellers, however, there still seems no clarity on this as the process as it still involves Jewellers in certain elements of HUID, the council said in a media statement.

Nitin Khandelwal, Past Chairman, GJC, said, “There is a huge unrest in the industry. We are still facing problems and cannot get our jewellery Hallmarked anywhere. Along with earlier approved 3 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 is being awaited.”

A lot of webinars are being conducted by BIS to enforce a new HUID process that is being imposed upon jewellers via the Hallmarking centre route. There is still no clarity of how the Mandatory Hallmarking regime will work outside the 256 districts. There is a huge disconnect in what was agreed upon by the Minister and what is presented to the industry, Khandelwal said.

Saiyam Mehra, Vice Chairman, GJC, pointed out, “The applicability of hallmarking continues to loom the dark clouds of uncertainty in the industry. The 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.”

“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 for their old stock in trade,” Mehra said and requested Goyal to intervene and sort out the confusion.

During the meeting on 15th June 2021, it was conveyed that the Jeweller was allowed to sell their existing non hallmarked stock till 30th Aug 2021 which was also conveyed via press release from the Ministry, however all these important concerns are missing in the order and thus has created a scenario of unrest and panic amongst the entire Industry, GJC said

BIS has had 3 meetings with around 20 member Expert Committee from 25th to 29th May 2021, where they brainstormed all the elements that the industry found impractical and needed amendments in the Regulations and the Act. BIS team headed by DG principally agreed to a large majority of the concerns and admitted to having the needful done so that it can be implemented in structured manner as required by BIS legal procedures. He asked the industry to be patient and look forward to clarifications from BIS in this regard.

The key issues concerns discussed and agreed upon were related to