Vadodara jewellers went on one day symbolic strike in protest of the hallmarking process mandatory by the Bureau of Indian Standards

The Jewelers' Association of Gujarat, including Vadodara, on Monday went on a one-day symbolic strike in protest of the hallmarking process mandatory in the country by the Bureau of Indian Standards. More than 200 jewellers' shops are closed in Vadodara today in support of the strike and request government to give some concessions in norms of HUID.

Jewellers said, they welcome the government's hallmarking process, but oppose the new HUID process. Since June 16, 2021, hallmarking has been made mandatory in 256 districts of the state and an estimated 10-12 crore coins are produced in India every year. In addition, the current stock of about 6-7 crore issues is yet to be hallmarked. The total number of coins to be hallmarked in this one year is going to be around 16-18 crores.

However, the current speed or capacity of hallmarking centres is about 2 lakh pieces per day and will take almost 800-900 days which is equivalent to 3-4 years to mark this years' production. Currently, the new marking system HUID is taking almost 5-10 days to hallmark the products and as a result, there has been a complete disruption and return on investment cannot be obtained. As a result the price of jewellery goes up and that burden is on the consumers.

The jewellers said, lots of jewelery are of no use due to delays in the existing hallmarking process and BIS is fueling their concerns rather than solving the problems. The hallmarking proposed by the jewelers should be based on the point of sale.

Not only consumers but also the lives of 10 million workers depend on the livelihood of the gems and jewelery industry will be at stake due to the non-implementation of the new marking process of hallmarking. In addition to that not producing or hallmarking the jewelery and selling it to the merchant, it will eventually shut down the jewelers businesses due to fines and criminal consequences on the jewelers. They demand concession in the norms of HUID