Gem and Jewellery Federation to oppose mandatory on Hallmark

Bangalore, Dec 20(UNI) The Gem and Jewelry Federation (GJF), the National body of the Jewelry Trade in the country, has demanded the Union Government not to enforce the mandatory provisions of the Hallmarking Act, which was not practical GJF Chairman Vinod Hayagriv.

Addressing newspersons here, he said that the Hallmarking act, which will come into force from January 2008 in all metros in the country, was drafted without consulting the GJF and the Gems and Jewelry industry.

Stating that the Act, instead of answering several issues, has raised many questions which needs to be clarified before its enforcement. " Per se we were not opposed to the Hallmarking Act, but the government has not given any thought about certain ground realities including lack of infrastructure and difficulties in enforcing it before preparing it".

Mr Hayagriv said that in five metro cities over 30,000 Gem and Jewelry outlets were functioning and with the enforcement of the Act all such outlets needs to get license to carry out their businesses. "The license raj was being introduced by bringing Hallmarking act only to create more harassment and problems to the traders" he added.

Stating that the Hallmarking Act has certain provisions which are impractical with scope of prosecution and suspension of License, Mr Hayagriv also said that the infrastructure required for the compulsory hallmarking in the form of Assaying Centers were highly inadequate to support and sustain any mandatory hallmarking. "There are only 25 hallmarking centers in the four metros against an estimated requirement of 500 centers" he added.

Demanding the Centre to remove the mandatory clause, Mr Hayagriv urged to give sufficient time to bring about the awareness in the industry about Hallmarking and the Act.

UNI