Compulsory Hallmarking Of Gold Jewellery Deferred By Two Weeks; To Begin From June 15

Hallmarking of gold jewellery is set to begin from June 15 this year as in view of Covid, the government has accepted the request of stakeholders to give jewellers some more time to get prepared for implementation and resolve issues.

Earlier, it was expected to be implemented from June 1, 2021.

A committee was formed to ensure proper coordination and resolve the implementation issues. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Director-General Pramod Tewari would be the convener of the committee. Additional Secretary Nidhi Khare, Department of Consumer Affairs and representatives of Jewellers Associations, trade, hallmarking bodies etc. are going to constitute the committee.

Reviewing progress made in the implementation of mandatory hallmarking, Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal said that India must have the world's best standards in gold jewellery.

He said that customers must get Hallmark-certified gold at the earliest all across the country without any further delay.

Under the hallmarking scheme of the Bureau of Indian Standards, jewellers are registered for selling hallmarked jewellery and recognised for testing and owning Hallmarking centres.

BIS (Hallmarking) Regulations were implemented from June 14 2018. Hallmarking will enable consumers/jewellery buyers to make the right choices and will save them from any unnecessary confusion while buying gold.

Earlier, quality control orders for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery/artefacts were issued by the government on January 15, 2020, but the last date was extended to June 2021 to clear old stock of non-hallmarked jewellery.

The hallmarking of jewellery/artefacts is required to enhance the credibility of gold jewellery and customer satisfaction through third party assurance for the marked purity/fineness of gold.

This step will also help develop India as a leading gold market in the world.
There has been a 25 per cent increase in hallmarking centres in the last five years.

The number of assaying and hallmarking centres have increased from 454 to 945 in the last five years. At present 940 A&H centres are operative. Out of this, 84 AHCs have been set up under government subsidy schemes in various districts.

According to the World Gold Council, India has around 4 lakh jewellers, out of which only 35,879 have been BIS certified.