Page 22 - Bullion World Volume 5 Issue 1 January 2025

Bullion World | Volume 5 | Issue 01 | January 2025
B ullion W orld | V olume 5 | I ssue 01 | J anuary 2025

At the recent Gem and Jewellery Conference at
New Delhi, concerns were raised on the need to
ensure quality assurance for jewellery exported
from India, so that it is accepted at other countries
without further retesting. Several countries in Europe
and the middle east are refusing to recognize indian
hallmarked jewellery, because the indian hallmarking is
not benchmarked/valid globally. Exporters have been
protesting that Indian jewellery is held up in some middle
east countries for 10 to 13 days for removal of the black
laser marks of Indian hallmarking scheme. To earn
mutual respect for Indian hallmarks globally and to boost
our jewellery exports, Indian hallmarking scheme shall
join the International Vienna Convention on hallmarking.
This will enable that, in addition to the 4 mandatory
marks of the indian hallmarking scheme, a 5th mark
(CCM- common control mark) of the Vienna Convention
also shall be marked on each jewellery article, which
shall ensure that Indian hallmarked jewellery is accepted
globally, without further retesting.

It may be noted that trade associations like GJEPC and
Hallmarking Federation of India have been requesting
the BIS and the Ministry to initiate the process of India
joining the Vienna Convention on hallmarking, but it is
being rejected citing various frivolous reasons. India
joining Vienna Convention shall emphasise the quality
standards of Indian jewellery in the global market, similar
to the global LBMA accreditation for gold refineries.
When India is permitting bullion imports only from LBMA
and DMCC gold refineries, it also highlights/reminds us
that buyers of Indian jewellery abroad shall have more
confidence in Indian jewellery articles if it is coming with
the 5th hallmark (CCM) of the Vienna Convention. Few
Ahcs in India are willing and ready to join the Vienna
Convention on hallmarking and they have conveyed 2024. Further penetration of Indian jewellery exports to
their readiness to BIS several years back. India joining
the western world can be achieved only by highlighting
the Vienna Convention is an elaborate process, wherein the quality certifications of Indian jewellery.
India has to start attending the Vienna Convention
meetings as an applicant for a few years and then getting Hallmarking Federation was started in the year 2021 by
a few hallmarking centres in India empanelled under
a group of professionals having decades of experience
Vienna certification after their inspection procedures. in hallmarking industry, with the objective of enhancing
The various ministries of Consumer Affairs, Commerce
the credibility of the gold hallmarking industry with
and Finance shall support these initiatives, to boost the fair and ethical trade practices. Federation has been
quality standards of the Indian jewellery industry, also
supporting all the novel inititiaves of the BIS and our
leading to higher exports and foreign exchange earnings, expectations are to improve the end to end traceability of
thereby reducing the CAD, especially when India’s trade
the hallmarking scheme, so that hallmarked gold articles
deficit hits an all time high of $38 billion in November become proven asset class investment products.

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