Hallmark, a quality standard, is now mandatory to be adopted in precious metal and jewellery by 2008. | |
| With an objective to educate trade fraternity about availing hallmark and various schemes introduced by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), V G Jewellers Asseying and Hallmarking Centre, franchisee of BIS for marking hallmark jewellery products alongwith BIS officials conducted a one-day workshop in Rajkot . About 500 traders assembled in the workshop. |
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| In Gujarat, there are approximate 150-175 Hallmark Certified vendors whereas in Saurashtra-Kutch there are 61 and out of which, in Rajkot itself there are 31 such vendors, he said. |
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| Talking about the fear that hallmark products are treated as branded products by Central Excise Department and inturn heavy taxes are levied on such products, due to which majority of jewellers hesitate to avail Hallmark certification, S Kishor Kumar, Director, BIS, Rajkot said, "Following the episodes of harassement on jewellers in South India, our department has issued clarifications to the concerned authorities that Hallmark is a quality benchmark and products embossed with marks identifiying Hallmark should not be treated as a branded jewellery." So, the traders can rest asure in this matter, he added. |
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| Emphasising on the needs to avail Hallmark certification, Haresh Soni, a jeweller from the city appealed the gathering, "When foreign retailing revolution in jewellery sector will hit India in near future, our survival bargaining trump would be quality and so availing Hallmark becomes important. Secondly, gold which is taken as an investment option, is competing with mutual funds, automobiles, real esate etc, therefore if we do not provide a quality product, resale market of gold is likely to decrease and in coming days, people would start banking on for other investment options rather than precious metal. Hence, our turnovers will suffer, so now the time has come that we provide quality products to our customers, investors by availing hallmark certification." |
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| Bhayab Saholiya, a franchisee owner explained, "During sampling, the product passes through various processes like micro-scaling criterion and parameters, which is far better as against the routine trade practise of using caratometer, where there are all chances of error." |
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| About legal provisions S K Jain, Director & Head, BIS, Rajkot said, "There are different Hallmark standards for Gold and Silver, IS 1417 for Gold and IS 2112 for Silver, in case if any jeweller is seen violating Hallmark norms then legal provision of 1 years imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine will be levied" |
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| There are 4 lakhs vendors assocaited in jewellery trade across the country and only 1,150 of them have availed Hallmark Certification, so to attract more members we have now introduced a revised fee structure of Rs 25,000 for vendors in Metro cities, Rs 20,000 for vendors in district headquarters and Rs 10,000 for vendors in other areas, for which they will get Hallmark Certificate of three years validity and allowing them to sale hallmark products from one particular location, additional 10.2% service tax shall also be charged on the cited prices, said Jain. |
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