A notification in this regard will be issued on January 15 next year and the decision will come into effect after a year, making it compulsory for all the jewellers to register with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and sell only hallmarked gold jewellery and artefacts.

Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and is voluntary in nature at present. The BIS is already running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000 and around 40 per cent of gold jewellery is being hallmarked currently.

“We are making hallmarking for gold jewellery and artefacts mandatory in the country. We will issue a notification on January 15 next year. One year period will be provided for implementation. From January 15, 2021, this will become mandatory,” Mr. Paswan told reporters.

“Jewellers and retailers will be given one year time to exhaust their existing stocks,” he added.

He said the decision has been taken to protect consumers interest, mainly in small cities and villages, and ensure that they purchase pure gold jewellery.

“We are not touching gold jewellery lying with consumers,” the minister clarified. Old jewellery is generally recycled by jewellers.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formulated standards for hallmarking gold jewellery in three grades — 14 carat, 18 carat and 22 carat.

Mr. Paswan said the government may make it mandatory for retailers to display prices of these three quality grades at their shops.

Asked about the penalty in case of violation, a senior BIS official explained that there is a provision for a fine of a minimum Rs 1 lakh and up to five times of the value of article as well as one year jail under the BIS Act passed last year.

At present, there are 877 assaying and hallmarking centres in 234 district locations and 26,019 jewellers have taken BIS registration.

“We are targeting to open hallmarking centres in all districts of the country and register all jewellers during this one year window,” he said, adding that a massive awareness campaign would be launched.

Mr. Somasundaram PR, Managing Director, India, World Gold Council said, “This is an excellent step in the right direction, a long overdue policy action. It will bring trust back to the gold industry, benefiting consumers and trade alike. It will change the image of the Indian gold industry and enable it to market our famed jewellery handcrafting skills in an environment of trust and transparency. Mandatory hallmarking will lead to more jobs in assaying and purity verification which in turn will support the gold monetisation scheme. The period of one year to transition takes into account business realities and is very supportive of trade. We welcome it and do hope the trade sees this in positive light, working wholeheartedly to make it a success.”