Delay in hallmarking gold articles put jewellers in quandary

 

 

 

Although the jewellers have welcomed the mandatory Hallmarking Scheme, they are facing various difficulties, huge delays, lack of clarity and confusion over the implementation process. Rajesh Rokde, Secretary of Nagpur Sarafa Association and Director of All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) said, “As per the Hallmarking Scheme, jewellers have to get each gold article tested at the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) authorised hallmarking centre. Generally, this process takes a few hours, but under the current situation it is taking 10 to 15 days. As of now the volume of gold articles being sent to the hallmarking centre is low and still it is taking so many days. What will happen when the volume increases. Already there is panic among jewellers in the market.” He further said, “Without adequate infrastructure implementation of the Hallmarking Scheme will be difficult.”

 

There are only two hallmarking centres in the city, both of them located in Itwari and total four in Vidarbha. The two centres in Itwari can handle only 100 to 200 gold articles daily. With more than 3,000 jewellers in the city alone, the infrastructure will have to be strengthened keeping in mind the existing and future volume. “There is requirement of 10 to 20 hallmarking centres to cope-up with the demand,” said Rokde. Due to lack of infrastructure or hallmarking centres across the country, Hallmarking Scheme has been made mandatory in only 256 districts out of total 805 districts in the country. There are total 900 hallmarking centres in the 256 districts.

 

This shows the massive lack of infrastructure associated with the scheme, said Rokde. Under the current circumstances, Hallmarking law is silent on various procedures like alterations on make-to-order jewellery, detachable jewellery, who will be held responsible and compensation in case there are any discrepancies in the lab report and other issues, he said. Rokde said that the Hallmarking Scheme was finally implemented by the Government on June 16, 2021. Kishore Sheth, Director of Batukbhai Sons Jewellers said that Government should have implemented the Hallmarking Scheme with a step-by-step approach. The Government should have introduced only the hallmarking on gold jewellery for the first two years. After that, it should have introduced the HUID law after consultation with the stakeholders. “HUID is time consuming and should be discouraged”, he added. He further said that the jewellery business has been devastated by Coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns. Since the cases are low, the authorities should extend the shop timings in the interest of jewellery industry.

 

HUID law is impracticable: Rokde Highlighting the difficulties associated with implementing the Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number, Rajesh Rokde said, “HUID law is an impractical law which will create a big crisis in the jewellery industry. HUID process has increased the time required to get the hallmarking on jewels and this has created huge backlogs at hallmarking centres.” The hallmarking of jewellery is a lengthy process as the centre will give the photo of each jewel and its six digit alphanumeric HUID number to the jeweller by submitting it on the BIS portal. “The Government should abolish the HUID law at the earliest,” Rokde demanded.