Jewellery stocks pile up due to delay in hallmarking

With the Union government making it mandatory for jewellers to stamp the six-digit alpha-numeric ‘Hallmarking Unique Identity’ (HUID) on the jewellery sold, jewellery manufacturers and retailers here

With the Union government making it mandatory for jewellers to stamp the six-digit alpha-numeric ‘Hallmarking Unique Identity’ (HUID) on the jewellery sold, jewellery manufacturers and retailers here say the delay in HUID stamping has brought business to a standstill. B. Muthuvenkatraman, president of Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers Association, said if a jewellery manufacturer gave his products to the hallmarking centre, it took four or five days to get it back. So every manufacturer had jewellery stocks and was unable to give orders to the goldsmiths now. The government should not bring the entire business to a standstill in the name of ensuring quality. The manufacturers were working to just 50 % capacity though they had orders, he said. Coimbatore Jewellers Association president B. Sabarinath said gold smiths and jewellery units in Coimbatore produced nearly 200 kg of gold jewellery a day. These need to be hallmarked before they were shipped to dealers and retailers. Only 256 of the 743 districts in the country had hallmarking centres. Coimbatore was one of the 256 districts. “Why introduce a system when the infrastructure is not ready and when it is not mandatory across the country,” he asked.