- Strong opposition to the implementation of HUID
Mumbai. The central government has made hallmarking mandatory for providing pure gold jewelery to customers in the country, but the acute shortage of hallmarking centers and its complex rules has created resentment among the gold jewelery traders. Jewelery organizations have decided to go on a one-day symbolic strike on Monday, August 23, to protest against the arbitrarily mandatory implementation of hallmarking process in the country by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
The entire gem jewelery industry has come together to oppose the complex rules of hallmarking. All the organizations of the industry have jointly formed the National Task Force on Hallmarking. The hallmark is the certificate of purity of gold. Initially this decision has been implemented in 256 districts from 16 June 2021.
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HUID Destructive Process : Minawala
Ashok Minawala, former chairman of All India Gem and Jewelery Domestic Council and member of the task force, said that our protest is not for hallmarking, we welcome it, our protest is about hallmarking unique ID (HUID). Because HUID is a ‘disastrous process’ for us, which does not provide any protection of jewelery in the current mandatory hallmarking process. De-registration, penal provisions, stringent search and seizure rules will eventually bring about ‘Inspector Raj’ in the industry. The symbolic strike is our peaceful protest against the arbitrary implementation of HUID. The HUID process will create problems for customers and MSME jewellers. So the government should postpone HUID.
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Entire industry stalled due to complicated process: Jain
GJC and GJSCI Director Dinesh Jain said that hallmarking has been made mandatory in 256 districts with effect from June 16, 2021 and around 10-12 crore pieces are manufactured in India annually. The new marking system i.e. HUID is taking about 5 to 10 days to hallmark the products. The whole industry has come to a standstill due to this complicated process. HUID will not only affect the consumers but will also affect the 5 crore dependents of the gems and jewelery industry.
Lack of Hallmarking Center: Kagrecha
Prakash Kagrecha, President, Mumbai Wholesale Gold Jewelery Association said that jewelers also want hallmarking, only then there has been an increase of about 250% in the registration and the number of registered jewelers has gone up to 88,000, but where hallmarking centers have come down, 83 centres. has been suspended or cancelled. The new hallmarking procedures (HUID) include cutting, melting and scraping of jewelery for sale. The whole process of hallmarking fails when the jewelery is damaged. Removal of the jeweler’s name from the jewelery would be detrimental to the consumers, especially if they wish to sell or replace the jewelery as the jeweller’s identity has been removed from the jewellery.
