New Delhi: Jewellers in Ahmedabad, Chennai, and other cities observe a one-day total shutdown on Monday against Hallmarking Unique ID (HUID) implementation. Jewellers claim the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 'arbitrarily implemented mandatory hallmarking process.' 

The call for one-day total shutdown comes a day after Director General BIS said, "Hallmarking scheme is turning out to be grand success with more than 1 crore pieces of Jewellery hallmarked in a quick time". He said that more than 90000 Jewellers have also registered in the same time period.

Chennai Jewellers Association Chief Uday Vummidi asked "HUID process takes info of the maker, seller and buyer. How will you maintain buyer privacy?.

The National Task Force on Hallmarking has given the shutdown call against HUID. The National Task Force on Hallmarking is formed by 350 Associations and Federations of jewellers representing all four zones of the gems and jewellery industry.  

What is HUID?

HUID is a unique code that will be given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking, which will be helpful in identifying the jeweller or the Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (AHCs) which had hallmarked the jewellery. It will be a six-digit alphanumeric code with which every piece of jewellery will be tagged.