Jewellers to go on strike on August 23 against mandatory gold hallmarking

“The one-day token strike is our peaceful protest against the arbitrary implementation of HUID (hallmark unique identification number), which is impractical and unimplementable,” Ashok Minawala, ex-Chairman of GJC said.

All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) said that jewellers across the country will go on a strike to protest against the “arbitrary implementation” of mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery, PTI reported. 

Over 350 associations and federations are expected to support the strike, according to GJC. 

Advertisement

“The one-day token strike is our peaceful protest against the arbitrary implementation of HUID (hallmark unique identification number), which is impractical and unimplementable,” Ashok Minawala, ex-Chairman of GJC, told PTI.

Gold hallmarking, a process used to certify the purity of the gold, had been voluntary in nature. In June 2021, mandatory gold hallmarking came into force. For phase 1 implementation, the government identified 256 districts from 28 states and union territories.

Talking about the new HUID system, GJC Director Dinesh Jain said, “Currently, the new HUID system is taking almost 5 to 10 days to hallmark the products, resulting in a complete bottleneck and the industry is on standstill. Tonnes of jewellery is lying idle due to delays in the existing hallmarking process and BIS is simply adding fire to our anxiety instead of resolving issues.”

“It is estimated that yearly almost 10-12 crore gold jewellery pieces are manufactured in India. In addition, the existing stock of almost 6-7 crore pieces is yet to be hallmarked. This takes the total count of pieces to be hallmarked in a year to almost 16-18 crore pieces,” he further added.

As reported by Business Standard, according to the council, the penal and criminal consequences on the jewellers who have not manufactured or hallmarked the jewellery and sold it like a trader will eventually result in cancellation of registration and shutting down of the business.