The All Kerala Gold and Silver Merchants’ Association has reiterated its demand that more time be given to merchants to get the Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number on ornaments. The Union government has fixed April 1 as the last date for merchants to get their products marked with HUID.
Association treasurer S. Abdul Nassar said around a fourth of the gold market in the country was accounted for by Kerala. Kerala had a tradition of selling prescribed quality gold even before the implementation of the hallmarking system, he said.
The gold merchants have maintained that the stock of products in the sales outlets are all in the list of Income Tax department, GST department and the Bureau of Indian Standards. Under such circumstances, the merchants were justified in their demand for more time to get HUID for ornaments in their outlets, said Mr. Nassar.
The demand for extension of deadline was also raised at a meeting convened by the Department of Consumer Affairs last week. According to the merchants, when the existing four hallmarking logos on gold ornaments are erased and the HUID is imposed, the loss for the seller is about two mg to five mg per piece.
Since the ornaments with the four hallmarking logos adhered to the prescribed norms of purity and quality, the gold merchants should be allowed to sell off the existing stocks, they said. The merchants have submitted a memorandum to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Mr. Nassar added.
