Jewellers plan token stir against Hallmarking

Jewellers have decided to go on a nationwide token strike on Monday, August 23, 2021 to protest against what they called the ‘arbitrarily implemented mandatory hallmarking process’ by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The strike call has been given by the National Task Force on Hallmarking formed by 350 Associations and Federations of jewellers representing all four zones of the gems & jewellery industry. Ashok Minawala, member, National Task Force on Hallmarking, Past chairman of All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council said, “We have always welcomed Hallmarking as it has built our businesses and confidence of our customers, but we cannot accept the new HUID as it has nothing to do with the purity of gold.” “The new HUID is a 6-digitcode, which BIS feels will improve gold purity, but BIS cannot prove even one element of how it can improve the purity, apart from it being just a tracking mechanism. Dinesh Jain, member National Task Force on Hallmarking, Director GJC & GJSCI, said, “The HUID is taking almost 5 to 10 days to hallmark the products, resulting in complete bottleneck and the industry is on a standstill.