Mandatory Gold Hallmarking in India
Recently, the Government of India announced that from June 1, 2021, the mandatory hallmarking system will be implemented for gold artifacts and jewelry. Currently, gold hallmarking in the country is voluntary.
Key Points:
- India is the world’s biggest importer of gold, with annual imports of nearly 700-800 tonnes.
- Gold Hallmarking provides purity certificates to gold jewelery and artifacts.
- Under the new rules, only three categories of jewelery will now be hallmarked – 14-carat, 18-carat and 22- Formerly, 10 categories of gold jewelery were hallmarked
- This new system will also be available to consumers who are interested in hallmarking their old jewelery.
Reasons for Gold Hallmarking:
- The compulsory hallmarking of gold will protect the public against the low carat category. This will ensure that consumers are not cheated.
- It will remove corruption in the system of jewelry manufacturing and bring transparency.
- The BIS Act 2016 has enabled the provisions under Section 14 and Section 16 for compulsory hallmarking of gold jewelry and artifacts by the Central Government; this made it mandatory for all jewelers selling gold jewelry and artifacts to register with BIS and sell only hallmarked gold jewelry and artifacts.
Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS):
The Bureau of Indian Standards is the national standard body of India established under the BIS Act 2016 for harmonized development of activities such as standardization of goods, quality certification and marking.It is headquartered in New Delhi.
Source – Live Mint
