Hallmarking for gold jewellery and artifacts would be mandatory from January 15, 2021, the government said in an announcement on Friday. Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the decision was taken to ensure quality. The department of consumer affairs will issue a notification by January 15, 2020, for making gold hallmarking mandatory. However, one year period will be provided for implementation of this decision to enable jewellers clear their existing stock.
At present, only 40 % of gold and silver jewellery are hallmarked. India is the largest importer of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry. India imports around 700-800 tonnes of gold every year.
What is hallmarking:
The BIS hallmark is a hallmarking system for gold as well as silver jewellery sold in India certifying to the purity of the metal. It certifies that the piece of jewellery conforms to a set of standards laid by the Bureau of Indian Standards, the national standards organization of India.
BIS hallmark for gold jewellery consists of several components:
Govt makes hallmark mandatory for gold jewellery
A three-digit no, indicating the purity of the gold in part-per-thousand-format viz; 958, 916, 875, 833,792,750,708,667, 585, 375. Thus a BIS 916 hallmark would certify to a purity of 916 per 1000, that is 91.6%, translating to a 22-carat purity of gold.
- Logo of the assaying centre.
- A code denoting the year of hallmarking.
- Logo/code of the jeweller.
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