The government is changing waste and expense norms for gold and silver jewelry exports

The government on Friday revised norms on the allowable amount of waste in connection with the export of gold, silver and platinum jewelry.

Waste standards are the allowable amount of gold or silver that may be lost in the production of jewelry for export.

An industry official said the waste standards had been adjusted slightly from the earlier standards, published on May 27, after the industry called on the government to investigate the issue.

The industry raised concerns over May regulations that tightened waste standards across all jewelry categories.

Following their concerns, the Ministry of Commerce postponed the implementation of these regulations until December 2024.

Now, the ministry has re-presented the revised standards, which have been welcomed by the industry.

“The allowable waste and standard input-output norms for jewelry exports have been revised,” the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a public announcement.

The new standards will come into force on January 1 next year.

The industry has made two key demands – setting waste standards that realistically reflect the jewelry production process and provide an adequate transition period to adapt to the new regulations.

Standard Input Output Standards (SIONs) are rules that define the amount of input/output required to produce a unit of output for export.

Input and output standards apply to products such as electronic, engineering, chemical and food products, including fish and marine products, handicrafts, plastic and leather products.

In May, waste for common gold and platinum jewelry was reduced to 0.5% from 2.5%, and for silver to 0.75% from 3.2%. For studded jewelry, losses came down to 0.75% for gold, silver and platinum jewelry from 5% earlier.

According to the new norms announced on Friday, waste of 2.25% is allowed in handmade gold and platinum jewelry. from the current 2.5 percent and 3 percent in silver jewelry with 3.2 percent

In the case of machine-made gold and platinum jewelry, a loss of 0.45% is allowed, and in the case of silver, up to 0.5%. In the case of handmade gold, silver and platinum studded jewelry, the new standards allow waste of 4%. For machine-made studded jewelry, a loss of 2.8% is allowed.

Apart from jewelry, the order also includes idols, coins and medallions and other items made of these metals.

For the production of jewelry and other items for export, precious metals are imported duty-free. Exports by weight must correspond to the amount of metal imported duty-free, less any waste that may arise during the production stage. Waste standards are strictly imposed to ensure that duty-free metal does not enter the domestic market.