Jewellers’ strike on Aug 23 against gold hallmarking

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Jewellers across the country will go on a ‘token strike’ on August 23 against the “arbitrary implementation” of mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery, All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) said on Friday.

The strike will be supported by 350 associations and federations from all four zones of the entire gems and jewellery industry, the GJC claimed. Mandatory gold hallmarking has come into force from June 16 in a phased manner.

The government has identified 256 districts from 28 states and union territories for the phase-1 implementation. Gold hallmarking, a purity certification of the precious metal, was voluntary in nature so far.

“The one-day token strike is our peaceful protest against arbitrary implementation of HUID (hallmark unique identification number), which is impractical and unimplementable,” Ashok Minawala, past chairman of GJC, said in a statement.