·
GJF Chairman
writes to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Mr. KV Thomas
·
GJF Chairman
calls the proposed move ‘cumbersome’, ‘impractical’, ‘expensive’ and ‘time
consuming’
·
Urges policy
makers to taken industry stakeholders into confidence while framing new rules
or changing them
·
GJF
recommends that the two BIS Commitees on Hallmarking be merged
Mumbai: October 14, 2013: The All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation
(GJF) has opposed the national standards body Bureau of Indian Standards
proposal to issue a certicard for the jewellery retailers in metropolitan
cities for every piece of jewellery sold. In a letter written to Hon. Minister
of Consumer Affairs Mr. KV Thomas, GJF’s Chairman Mr. Haresh Soni has called
the proposed BIS Hallmarking move ‘cumbersome’, ‘impractical’, ‘expensive’ and
‘time consuming’ and earnestly requested the policy makers to take the
jewellery industry into confidence while framing rules or changing them. GJF
has always supported BIS initiatives in improving the Hallmarking system in
India and has made several representations to the Ministry and Director General
of BIS to explain some industry apprehensions on the matter.
 |
| Mr. Haresh Soni, Chairman, GJF |
Mr. Haresh
Soni, Chairman, GJF, said, “GJF has
always cooperated with BIS but the proposed move to make jewellers in metros
issue a certicard with each piece of jewellery along with its photograph and
unique identification mark is highly unviable and not customer-friendly. The
cost of each piece of jewellery will increase due to the additional cost burden
of Rs. 125-150 for issuing one certicard. In case of mass produced jewellery,
it is impossible to hallmark each piece of jewellery and issue a certicard for
each one of them.”
Mr. Soni
pointed it out to the Minister that “It is practically an uphill task for the jeweller to maintain thousands
of such certificates in jewellery stores and retrieve the same at the time of
delivery of the product to the customer. This process will in fact discourage
the jewellers to avoid hallmarking jewellery as it is expensive and these
Centres may also not follow the standard procedures, which may lead to
unhealthy practices. This will put additional burden of vigilance on BIS. As
discussed earlier, many Hallmarking Centres do not have the facility of
Hallmarking but have been allotted licence and marking jewellery at their free
will. In some case, A&H licence has been issued to jewellers, which will
defeat the cause and purpose behind Hallmarking.”
In his letter, GJF Chairman also pointed out to the
Minister that BIS had formed two Committees to improve the Hallmarking system
in the country but the first meeting of the above Committees were held
separately on two different dates! Mr. Soni recommended that the two BIS
Committees should be merged and a joint meeting should be held so as to get a
complete picture of the situation on ground. Moreover, a key point here is that
Hallmarking Centres should reject the jewellery in case if the jewellery is
found of below standard.
Bachchraj
Bamalwa, Director & ex-Chairman of GJF, said, “Certificates will surely bring trust. But trust for only metro
consumers? Why does the government not implement the law across the country at
one go? Metros constitute 25-30 per cent of jewellery sales. Attempts to sell
even legitimate jewellery items bought elsewhere will be difficult even in
consumers’ urgent need of money. Hence, many consumers’ emergency will be
affected badly despite having adequate jewellery wealth in store. For
jewellers, however, it will have a multiplier impact. They hold between
5,000-10,000 pieces of ornaments of various types in inventory every time in
festival seasons. Certificate with every item would mean equal number of
careful paper handling, which is impossible.”
The need of the hour is to tighten the bolts on hallmarking
centres. Hallmarking process has to be
completely overhauled before taking a step further. It is the hallmarking centres and the process
which should be fine tuned. It is my
earnest request to the Hon. Consumer Affairs Minister to take the hallmarking
process in India to take it to the next level by making it mandatory for all
hallmarking centres to be enable compliant so that a piece of jewellery
hallmarked in India can be accepted by any other country in the world. It is not so at present. We firmly believe that jewellers and the
industry can only survive if consumers are protected and we are determined to
protect the consumers.
GJF has
already unveiled the Trust Mark Model (TMM), a unique ‘Business Excellence
Model’ initiative that will help G&J members to grow their business and
become more efficient. The Trustmark is exclusively designed by ISOQAR for GJF.
It is an exclusive model for business growth through implementation of systems
& processes & practices for growth and managing risks.
About GJF: The
All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation
(GJF) is the national nodal and the largest single trade body in
India for the
promotion and growth of trade in gems and jewellery across India. It represents over 6,00,000 players comprising
manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, laboratories, gemologists,
designers and allied services to the domestic Gems & Jewellery
industry. The Gems & Jewellery industry is a hand crafted and
labour intensive with over 1 crore strong labour force engaged in the
manufacturing of jewellery industry in the domestic sector. The industry size
is estimated to be in the region of Rs. 4,00,000 crore. The
Federation’s mission is to support and promote the progress and prosperity of
all the members in the gems and jewellery industry across India. It also
provides regular news updated on notifications, rules and regulations declared
by the Government. It promotes the trade, by participating in promotional
events on a national level. It encourages the trade through the organization of
consumer exhibits in India. It also counsels educational and research
institutes that help in developing superior quality and high standards for
effective functioning of the trade.
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