June 15 is the deadline for getting jewellery hallmarked and retailers are strictly forbidden to sell non-hallmarked items thereafter. 

According to Anantha Padmanabhan, NAC Jewellers  and former Chairman of GJC, “There has been no further communication related to date of mandatory hallmarking to be extended nor about exemption for heritage jewellery.”
Among the many difficulties that jewellery business owners are facing in hallmarking their products major ones include: HUID and its impracticalities, lack of assaying and hallmarking centres in India and heritage jewellery, too has several issues which hallmarking authorities may want to address. Retailers of heritage jewellery opine that it should be exempted from hallmarking.

Informs Nitin Gilara, Rambhajos, Jaipur, “On June 14 a high level committee meeting with BIS authorities will take place and jewellers have already submitted their presentations to be discussed about heritage jewellery during this meeting and decisions about the same and also about the June 15 deadline will be announced after this meeting.”

Exports exempted

•    As exports are  exempt under Hallmarking, Copy of Export order will not be required for this exemption as that is not the current practice if some exporter is supplying year round to his/her regular buyer abroad.
•    Various export activities as per following that are permitted under Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) will be exempted from Hallmarking
a.    Export and reimport relating to Export Promotion Tours and Participation in Overseas Exhibitions as  allowed under Para 4.46 FTP r/w Para 4.80 of Handbook of Procedures.
b.    Re-import of rejected Jewellery under Para 4.52 FTP r/w Para 4.91 of HBoP.
c.    Consignment exports and reimport under Para 4.53 FTP r/w Para 4.93 of HBoP. 
•    B2B local exhibitions, which are organised within India for promoting and facilitating trade.
•    Exquisite hand crafted jewellery of Kundan, Minakari, Polki and Jadau, thewa jewellery should also be excluded.
 

Government of India officials and their assurance to consider positively to include all such provisions for exporters in the hallmarking guidelines will be issued soon.

Heritage jewellery, exemption awaited

Says Gilara, “Handcrafted kundan, meena and polki jewellery should be exempted from mandatory hallmarking – because it involves different purities in one ornament. The base of the jewellery usually has 18 carat gold, the kundan work may have 24 carat gold, meenakari again may have different purity of gold depending upon the colour used. In such cases it is impossible to hallmark it with one standard.”
Hand crafted heritage jewellery of Rajasthan, is never sold like jewellery – it is sold more like a part of art and culture of Rajasthan. Jaipur is known all over the world for its heritage jewellery. Artisans take a long time to delicately craft each and every part of the ornament. It has immense historic significance. The Maharajas of the past and Mughal emperors and their royal families donned this type of jewellery. Therefore it is not just a jewellery – it is an integral part of our culture and tradition. If an artist makes a painting and uses gold to adorn it – the painting cannot be sent for hallmarking and purity of gold cannot be tagged. It sells for the value of art and not for the value of gold used in it; this is a similar case.

Time consuming process
In the current assaying and hallmarking process a UID has to be generated for every piece, only then it can be hallmarked – this is highly time consuming. In case there is even a small alteration made in the product it needs to be sent for hallmarking again. Even in case of a set like a necklace with matching earrings, each piece of jewellery will be hallmarked separately. The hallmarking process is such that you have take each piece, photograph it and upload it. If there are 7,000 pieces everyday from one jeweller, and if there are one lakh pieces daily which are sent at each hallmarking centre – it is humanly impossible to complete the uploading work in a day.

Complicated procedures
At present, mandatory hallmarking of gold is impractical primarily because BIS hallmarking authorities are expecting every entity in jewellery supply chain; right from manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer to get every piece of jewellery hallmarked. This will take a lot of time and is not feasible for everyone to spend so much time and effort in getting the hallmarking done. Explains Mansukh Kothari of Vasupati Jewellers, “Hallmarking needs to be done at one point – by retailer before selling it to ultimate consumer – making it mandatory for manufacturer, wholesaler and all parties in the jewellery supply chain is not feasible.”

Hallmarking is here to stay, however items which will be exempted from mandatory hallmarking will be announced by BIS authorities later. For now, BIS is focusing on addressing hallmarking queries of G & J retailers and at the same time in order to bring discipline in the system they will go ahead by making hallmarking mandatory.