Nirav Modi scam heat itches small jewellers in India
New Delhi : Nirav Modi's fraud case with the Punjab National Bank is impacting small jewellers in India as they are finding it difficult to borrow money from the financial bodies.
According to a report by DNA, almost all banks have stopped financing even small jewellers.
"The smaller sized jewellers who were already being asked to shell out 100-125% collaterals are now being denied funding from banks altogether. Banks shouldn't treat the whole industry as a defaulter," Nitin Khandelwal, chairman of All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation, told DNA Money.
Mandatory Hallmarking of jewellery from June onwards will also make life of small jewellers difficult. Recently, jewellers demanded more Hallmark centres to make the process smooth and easy.
A major requirement for the new hallmarking norm is the contentious unique identification number or UID, a sort of Aadhar for every piece of ornament created in the country. But unlike humans, shapes and sizes of ornaments changes and norms would require every such change has to be registered again.
"Hallmark would be enough. The requirement of putting in UID at any condition is just not possible and the industry won't accept it," Khandelwal said.
