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Government has further extended the deadline for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts until June 15. The decision was taken at a meeting considering the devastating impact of the second wave of Covid-19. The guideline was earlier set to be implemented from June 1, 2021.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who chaired the meeting, said India must have the world’s best standards in gold jewellery. He said customers must get hallmark-certified gold at the earliest all across the country without any further delay.

The meeting, organised by Bureau of Indian Standards, Department of Consumer Affairs and was attended by various associations of bullion trade.

The government accepted the request of stakeholders for more time.

Hallmarking is a purity certification of precious metals and has been voluntary in nature so far. In November 2019, however, the government had announced mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts from January 15, 2021. This was later extended till June 1, 2021, as jewellers had sought time to shift to hallmarking and register themselves with the BIS amid the pandemic. This deadline has now been further extended by a fortnight.

Earlier this month, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court had ordered directing the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to avoid taking any coercive action on jewellers till June 14, 2021, who are not able to comply with mandatory hallmarking regulation by June 1, 2021.

As per the court order, it was mentioned that the percentage of hallmarking centres available in India is just about 34% of the 733 districts in the country and that there are at least 488 districts in the country, which do not have any hallmarking centres. It was further submitted that there are about 6,000 crore pieces of jewellery, which still need to be hallmarked. This was after jewellers had been requesting the government for more time to clear their old stock and inventory.

Why is hallmarking necessary?

Government has said hallmarking of jewellery is required to enhance their credibility and customer satisfaction/protection through third-party assurance for the marked purity/fineness of gold. Goyal said the move will help India develop as a leading gold market centre.

Mandatory hallmarking will include BIS logo, caratage, weight, centre’s number and jewellers number. Hallmarking Charges for gold jewellery/artefacts and silver jewellery/artefacts are Rs 35 per article and Rs 25 per article respectively, as per BIS. This means when the guidelines do get implemented, buyers will have to pay more for jewellery and artefacts.

Reactions

“We welcome the move of the government of making hallmark mandatory. But it will have a very nominal impact on price of gold ornaments, as the hallmarking cost is too low,” said Bablu Dey, general secretary of Swarnasilpo Bachao Committee.

In West Bengal, almost 65% of total gold ornaments are hallmarked.

This figure is a bit low in other states, said Bablu Dey, who himself was there in multiple meetings with the government.

“This decision is very good and timely but it should be put in place a long ago. Hope the customers would not be worried anymore about the the purity of the ornaments,” said Subhra Chandra from PC Chandra Jewellers.