Hallmarking of gold jewellery becomes mandatory: Here are 8 things to know

The government has issued a notification on Wednesday making the hallmarking of gold jewellery mandatory. However, it has stated that it will give one year’s time to jewellers to register themselves with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in order to clear their old stock. 

Union Food & Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, “The purpose of making hallmarking mandatory for gold jewellery and artefacts is to ensure that consumers are not cheated while buying gold ornaments and get the purity as marked on the ornaments.”

Here are 8 things to know: 

1. Hallmarking refers to the process of certifying the purity of gold. It is done by the Bureau of Indian Standards, a government body. 
2. Three categories of jewellery will be hallmarked, viz. 14 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat. At present, 10 grades of gold jewellery are available. 
3. The stated objective of hallmarking is to protect buyers against adulteration and lower carratage, and to compel manufacturers to maintain legal standards of purity. 
4. The jeweller could face penalty and imprisonment of up to one year if the jewellery or artefacts made of 14, 18 and 22 carat gold are sold without a BIS hallmark. 
5. Hallmarked jewellery will now have four components: BIS mark, purity in carat and fineness, assaying and hallmarking centre's name, and jewellers' identification mark /number.
6. A campaign to make jewellers and consumers aware of mandatory hallmarking will be organised at various locations across the country.
7. Around 40% of gold jewellery is being hallmarked currently, with the BIS running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000. 
8. As of December 31 last year, there are 892 Assaying and Hallmarking centres spread in 234 districts across the country. A total of 28,849 jewellers have been registered by BIS so far.