Jewellers urge Central Govt to extend deadline by one year

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 28

Jewellers have urged the Centre to extend the deadline further for hallmarking gold ornaments.

Earlier, the government had fixed June 1, 2021, as the deadline, but recently extended it till June 15, 2021, in the wake of the pandemic. However, the jewellers forum wants the deadline to be extended till June 2022.

Pankaj Khurrana, vice president, Indian Jewellers’ Forum, said, “Under the changed rules, organised sector will not have much impact, but outlets situated in remote parts will suffer a huge blow.”

Besides, Khurrana sought time to take up the matter with the government as jewellers could be punished in case, ornaments were found to be below mentioned quality.

He said it would be gross injustice with retailers as they buy objects certified by the hallmark centre. The concept of hallmark and its centres were introduced to decipher the exact quality of gold being used in ornaments.

On the sale of gold ornaments in the city, jewellers said there were enough customers in the market. Despite high gold prices and Covid-19 induced restrictions, trust of people in gold has increased.

Rahul Seth, a jeweller, said, “Parents who are about to marry their children now have sufficient funds to invest on gold ornaments. Lavish Punjabi marriages have been replaced by simple ceremonies in which one cannot have more than 20 attendees.”

Sandeep Gulati, who was purchasing gold ornaments for the marriage of his daughter, said, “Money I will be saving will go into asset making of his daughter.” He said as price of 24 carat gold was hovering around Rs 50,350 per tola (10 gm) and 22 carat at Rs 48,150 per tola, a lion’s share of wedding budget goes into buying gold.