Jewellers Association of Delhi-NCR urges Govt to bear conversion cost of moving to 6-digit hallmarked jewellery

Even as traders from several States and Union Territories have started opposing the decision of The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to make the 6-digit Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) mandatory for gold jewellery, the Jewellers Association of Delhi-NCRheld a meeting on this issue. During the meeting, it was argued that the Government should completely bear the expenses for converting the old jewellery with four or five-digits hallmark into six-digit hallmarks.

The BIS has made the 6-digit hallmark mandatory to maintain the purity of jewellery. The sale of 4 and 5-digit old hallmark gold will be completely banned in the country from April 1, as per a notification issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. After that, gold will no longer be sold without a 6-digit alphanumeric hallmarking.

According to Ramesh Manchanda, who is associated with the Jewellers Association, traders have four and five-digit hallmarked jewellery stocks valued at billions and converting them will cost a bomb. “If you get jewellery hallmarked once, it costs Rs 53.10. After checking the purity of the jewellery, Rs 40.50 is taken from us for tagging charges. To this, Rs 8.10 is added for GST and Rs 4.50 for BIS expenses is also charged. In such a situation, if a six-digit tag is added on the jewellery again, then crores of rupees will be spent, so the Government should think about this,” Manchanda said.

Content credits: News18