BIS to draft revised hallmarking guidelines, address jewellers’ queries. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is set to come up with revised guidelines soon on mandatory hallmarking of gold ornaments, a norm that will incorporate important issues and address all queries raised by jewellers before its scheduled implementation on June 15.
This was decided in its third meeting of the expert committee formed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to resolve the issues of mandatory hallmarking was held on Saturday. A number of issues were raised during the meeting and BIS has assured to consider and come up with comprehensive guidelines and detailed responses to the expert committee queries in the next few days.
The apex industry body the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) raised a host of issues in the meeting which includes deficiency of distribution of assaying and hallmarking (A&H) centres, allow further 6 to 9 months for registration of all jewellers and for the adequate number of A&H centres to be set up.
“The Govt. has been very considerate about the issues and concerns of the jewellers with regards to hallmarking. We are hopeful that the Govt. would come up with pragmatic solutions before the implementation of mandatory hallmarking,” said Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC and a member of the committee.
GJEPC clarified that only consideration of the number of centres per state is not a sufficient mechanism due to concentration in certain areas. Also, allowing sales of hallmarked jewellery without registration for small jewellers ,
HUID – maintaining accounts of single pieces due to HUID would be impossible, not feasible for smaller jewellers to comply. Apart from that, re-melting and remaking of articles presently in stock that do not conform to heavy cumulative losses to the industry apprehended on this count need to be addressed.
Artisanal jewellery such as Kundan contains multiple purities (18K, 24K) in one piece alongside the usage of other metal. Traditional jewellery should not be discontinued due to the inability to conform to hallmarking law, GJEPC urged.
The GJEPC has also requested clarification on the storage of jewellery without hallmarking and Jewellery send for exhibition.
Shah said, “The government has been very considerate about the issues and concerns of the jewellers with regards to hallmarking. We are hopeful that the Govt. would come up with pragmatic solutions before the implementation of mandatory hallmarking.”
The GJEPC has also requested clarification on the storage of jewellery without hallmarking and Jewellery send for exhibition.
“It is important the industry has clarity and understating of all the concerns they have so that there would not be any sort of hinderance and business can be carried out in a smooth manner,” said K Srinivasan, Convener, Gold Panel, GJEPC and a member of the expert committee commented.
