New Delhi: Hallmarking of Gold has been made mandatory from today in 256 districts of the country.
The Hallmark will include six-digit code along with BIS Mark & Purity and delivery voucher to be issued to Jeweller for utmost transparency, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), said at a press conference.
He said old un-hallmarked jewellery available in households can be sold to jewellers, who can continue to buy back such jewellery from consumers.
In order to give adequate time to the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of Gold Jewellery, there would be No penalties till August end, the DG said.
At present, there are 943 Assaying and Hallmarking centres operative in the country.
Jewellers with annual turnover of up to Rs. 40 lakh will be exempted from mandatory Hallmarking. Export and re-import of jewellery as per Trade Policy of Government of India, Tiwari said.
Jewellery for international exhibitions, jewellery for government approved B2B domestic exhibitions will also be exempted from mandatory Hallmarking.
Watches, fountain pens and special types of jewellery viz. Kundan, Polki and Jadau will be exempted from Hallmarking.
He further informed that the registration of jewellers will be one-time and there will be no fees will be charged from jewellers for registration.
Any manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, distributor or retailer engaged in selling precious metal articles has to mandatorily get registered with BIS.
However, artisans or manufacturers who are manufacturing the gold jewellery on job work basis for the jewellers and are not directly related to sale to anyone in the chain are exempted for registration.
The DG said that the Hallmark shall be done at the first point of sale which may be manufacturer, whole-seller, distributor or retailer.
Alteration in the Hallmarked jewellery up to 2 grams of increase or decrease to be allowed with responsibility of purity on the jeweller, he said.
He further added that there has always been a high demand from jewellers to increase the grades of gold purity for hallmarking. Considering this, gold of Additional carats i.e. 20, 23 and 24 will also be allowed for Hallmarking.
The Hallmarking of jewellery/artefacts has been required to enhance the credibility of gold Jewellery and Customer satisfaction through third party assurance for the marked purity/fineness of gold, consumer protection. This step will also help to develop India as a leading gold market centre in the World, he said.
It is to be noted that there has been 25% increase every year in A&H centres in the last five years, the government said.
The numbers of A&H centres have increased from 454 to 943 in the last five years. At present 943 Assaying and Hallmarking centres are operative. Out of this 84 AHCs have been setup under Govt. subsidy scheme in various Districts.
