Jewellers in Chennai plan to down shutters for a few hours on Monday as a token strike against the process to provide hallmarking unique ID (HUID) for every piece of jewellery.
The Chennai Jewellers’ Association plans to organise the protest, coinciding with the nationwide strike announced on Monday by the National Task Force on Hallmarking. About 7,000 shops will be closed between 9 a.m. and 11.30 a.m. on Monday.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had made gold hallmarking mandatory from mid-June. One of the major challenges faced by jewellers, they say, is that they have to upload a six-digit HUID number, affixed to each hallmarked jewellery piece on the BIS portal. At a press conference held on Sunday, Udhay Vummidi, the association’s president, said HUID was provided based on tracking mechanism, and it did not have a link to ascertaining the purity of gold. It is a time-consuming process, and assaying centres do not have the capacity to hallmark jewellery. Earlier, hallmarking was done in batches.
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While jewellery stock waiting to be hallmarked was already piling up, the HUID process would only lead to further delay, affecting the sector. The new process, which also seeks customers’ details, could pose a threat to their rights, he said.
Jayanthilal Challani, president, The Jewellers and Diamond Traders’ Association Madras, said nearly 25% of the 47,000 jewellers registered with the BIS belonged to Tamil Nadu.
On average, each of the registered jewellers would have about 10 kg of gold jewellery waiting to be hallmarked.
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There was no clarity on the insurance factor of the jewellery given to assaying centres. The retail sale of gold ornaments improved by 10% recently after a steady dip in prices. The new hallmarking process would be detrimental to the industry, he said.