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Jewellery hallmarking makes no headway
New Delhi, Nov 17: The government`s move to make hallmarking of gold jewellery compulsory has virtually stuck up with a majority of jewellers across the country insisting on self-certification on purity of their product and find official stamping as unrealistic and insecure option in the absence of proper infrastructure.
New Delhi, Nov 17: The government's move to make hallmarking of
gold jewellery compulsory has virtually stuck up with a majority of
jewellers across the country insisting on self-certification on
purity of their product and find official stamping as unrealistic
and insecure option in the absence of proper infrastructure.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs is seriously considering to making the 'hallmarking' of jewellery mandatory by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a nodal agency for certification, estimating that the jewellers have been duping the consumers to the tune of Rs 9,500 crore annually by selling under-caratage products.
Besides protecting the consumers interest, the ministry wants to bring credibility to the rapidly-growing jewellery trade in the country. With annual consumption of over 850 tonnes, India is the largest consumer of gold in the world.
As a step towards mandatory hallmarking, the government already introduced voluntary hallmarking of jewellery in April 2000. But so far, of the three lakh registered jewellers a negligible number of 610 have secured BIS recognition clearly indicating that the gold hallmarking scheme (GHS) has not taken off as expected.
The government also constituted a 13-member committee in august this year to find ways and means for securing the consumer interests as well as the feasibility of implementing the GHS, which has met only once in September.
The ministry officials observe that even those jewellers who have gone for BIS stamping are finding it difficult to open separate counters for stamped and other products. In this scenario, the consumer hardly knows whether he is buying the jewellery of the same carat which he paid for.
Bureau Report
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs is seriously considering to making the 'hallmarking' of jewellery mandatory by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a nodal agency for certification, estimating that the jewellers have been duping the consumers to the tune of Rs 9,500 crore annually by selling under-caratage products.
Besides protecting the consumers interest, the ministry wants to bring credibility to the rapidly-growing jewellery trade in the country. With annual consumption of over 850 tonnes, India is the largest consumer of gold in the world.
As a step towards mandatory hallmarking, the government already introduced voluntary hallmarking of jewellery in April 2000. But so far, of the three lakh registered jewellers a negligible number of 610 have secured BIS recognition clearly indicating that the gold hallmarking scheme (GHS) has not taken off as expected.
The government also constituted a 13-member committee in august this year to find ways and means for securing the consumer interests as well as the feasibility of implementing the GHS, which has met only once in September.
The ministry officials observe that even those jewellers who have gone for BIS stamping are finding it difficult to open separate counters for stamped and other products. In this scenario, the consumer hardly knows whether he is buying the jewellery of the same carat which he paid for.
Bureau Report