Delegates from UP Sarafa Association and All India Gem & Jewellery Domestic Council, Mahesh Jain, Rajan Rastogi, Pradeep Agrawal, Ravindranath Rastogi, Kailashnath Agrawal and Saiyam Mehra Vice Chairman GJC and key stakeholders of the industry met Honourable Minister of Defence Shri Rajnath Singh on June 26, and Honourable Minister of Consumer Affairs Shri Piyush Goyal on June 27, to discuss important pending matters related to hallmarking.

Honourable Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh and Honourable Minister of Consumer Affairs Shri Piyush Goyal patiently heard the industry representatives on the hallmarking concerns. The delegation team emphasised on the element of non-practicability of the proposed transferability of HUID number on the portal. The primary objective of HUID was to ensure that the AHC’s did their work diligently and for BIS to keep a track of the quantity of the pieces stamped by AHCs so that the data in relation to the articles hallmarked is accessible and readily available with BIS. However, the applicability of HUID to the jewellers may lead to numerous issues with regard to practicability, accessibility to data and data transfer etc.

Honourable Minister of Consumer Affairs assured the delegation team that HUID shall only be restricted to the AHC level and there will be no transferability of HUID numbers in the portal. Mahesh Jain, President UP Sarafa Association, said, “On behalf of UP Sarafa Association, GJC and the entire gems and jewellery industry, we wholeheartedly thank Shri Rajnath Singh and Shri Piyush Goyal for meeting us to discuss the key issues on hallmarking. Honourable Ministers patiently heard our concerns and assured that HUID shall be restricted only to AHC level. The meeting was extremely fruitful and Honourable Minister assured us that industry stakeholders shall be kept in confidence before making appropriate changes in the policy. The minister has asked us for a representation on the matter of kundan, polki and jadau jewellery.”

Saiyam Mehra, Vice Chairman GJC, said, “We are truly thankful to the Honourable Ministers Shri Rajnath Singh and Shri Piyush Goyal for their constant support and guidance. One of our most crucial concerns was not to make HUID transferable and the system should only be made applicable at the AHC level. This will prevent unwanted harassment in the day-to-day functioning of business and becoming a deterrent to business. We are glad that the Honourable Minister acknowledged this concern and assured us that number transfer in HUID shall not be applicable to the gems and jewellery industry.”

In addition to the above, the issues related to exemption of kundan, polki and jadau jewellery and rolling out mandatory hallmarking across India were also discussed in detail. The industry is hopeful that with the kind support of the Honourable Minister of consumer affairs and with due consultation with the industry, all the above issues will be resolved very soon.

The above picture features (l-r) Rajan Rastogi, Mahesh Jain, Pradeep Agrawal, Piyush Goyal, Abhishek Khare, Saiyam Mehra, Ravindranath Rastogi, Kailashnath Aggarwal