Jewellers to protest mandatory hallmarking of gold articles

Mumbai/Jaipur, Dec 20 - Jewellers from across India have threatened to return their hallmarking licences on Jan 1 if the government went ahead with a law that makes compulsory the hallmarking of every gold article sold.

The BIS Hallmarking Act, 2006, makes it mandatory to emboss the hallmark of quality on every item of gold jewellery sold in the market, according to All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) chairman Ashok Minawala.

Addressing a media conference, Minawala said that the GJF is not opposed to hallmarking. 'We are opposed to the licence raj. If this act is implemented without the amendments, the entire industry will suffer heavily,' he said.

Even the central and state governments will lose considerable revenue by way of taxes from the jewellery industry that has an annual turnover of Rs.700 billion, he added.

Among the provisions of the act, any jeweller who sells gold jewellery without the hallmark can be sentenced to a year in jail plus a fine of Rs.5,000.

Terming the act 'draconian,' Minawala alleged it would provide an avenue to bureaucrats to harass jewellers.

He pointed out that the GJF has already introduced Trust Mark to ensure the purity of gold in all jewellery. 'It is equivalent to the hallmark,' he claimed.

Minawala said it was strange that when the country's economy was moving towards a de-licensing regime and the government was trying to promote exports, a regressive act like this was being sought to be forced on the industry.

The GJF demanded that the provisions for arrest and fines must be deleted. 'If the government still goes ahead with it, the entire industry, which has more than 3,00,000 jewellers all over India, will revolt,' he declared.

Addressing a press conference in Jaipur, GJF director Vivek Kala said: 'The federation has always welcomed hallmarking and will continue to do so. We would like the public to understand that the draconian structuring of the act due to lack of understanding of ground realities by the government is the industry's worry and that is what is being protested.'

The GJF has presented its views on the law to the government. While the GJF has agreed to assist the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) in the smooth implementation of hallmarking in the country, its questioning is about the licensing that is being made compulsory, Kala said.

The act does not allow appeal and is overtly stringent, Kala said.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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