New Delhi: The government on Tuesday put on hold the new norms for permissible wastage amounts for gold, silver, and platinum content in jewellery exports until July 31, 2024. This decision came just a day after the notification was issued, following serious concerns raised by the gems and jewellery industry regarding the new standards.
Govt grants more time to GJEPC
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said that now keeping in view the representation of the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) highlighting the difficulties to their sector and MSME & handmade jewellery manufacturers from the revised norms, another opportunity will be given to the industry for submission of their views.
The DGFT said that the industry and the council can provide information/data to the concerned norms committee within one month. “Accordingly DGFT…hereby places the Public Notice…dated May 27, 2024, in abeyance up to July 31, 2024 with immediate effect,” a public notice by the directorate said.
The industry would have to submit data on manufacturing workflow and justification for process wastage and recovery at different stages of jewellery making.
An industry official said that the revised wastage norms were drastically reduced, potentially impacting the sector's exports of plain and studded jewellery. The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council approached the DGFT on Tuesday, highlighting that the May 27 public notice would severely affect the country's jewellery exports. They suggested that the DGFT commission a study with top exporters in each category before finalising the revised norms.
Govt revises wastage norms for gold, silver jewellery exports
The government on Monday notified revised norms related to the permissible amount of wastage and standard input output with regard to the export of gold and silver jewellery.
The May 27 notice specified that the weight of mountings and findings (or parts) of gold or silver, if imported and used in export products, would not be included in determining the net content of gold and silver in export products.
Under the revised norms, the permissible wastage by weight for plain gold and platinum jewellery was reduced from 2.5 per cent to 0.5 per cent. Similarly, for studded jewellery, the wastage limit was reduced from 5 per cent to 0.75 per cent. The norms for wastage for medals and coins were cut down from 0.2 per cent to 0.1 per cent.
While some experts believe that the tighter regulations could have encouraged the industry to adopt better manufacturing practices to reduce wastage, others argue that these changes might have led to increased production costs.
Standard Input-Output Norms (SION) are guidelines that specify the quantity of inputs required to produce a unit of output for export purposes. These norms apply to a variety of products, including electronics, engineering goods, chemicals, food items (such as fish and marine products), handicrafts, plastics, and leather goods.
(With PTI inputs)
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