Mumbai: To safeguard the interest of the end consumer, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is coming up with a policy by which a customer will be able to get his gold jewellery tested at the Bureau’s local office.

According to the policy, in the event the purity is not as guaranteed by the jeweller, the Assaying and Hallmarking (A&H) Centre (the centre that conducts purity check) which carried out the purity test will have to pay thrice as much as the price of the jewellery.

The procedure of testing gold begins with the customer depositing their jewellery piece at the BIS centre, from which the officers will take out one-fourth of a gram as a sample for testing. The result will be out in seven to eight days. In case the purity is as promised, the sample will be given back to the customer with a certificate and in case it is not, a notice will be sent to the A&H Centre and they will be required to pay a penalty.

In case an A&H Centre repeats the mistake, they will have to pay more money each time their tested jewellery turns out to be less pure than promised.

People in India were not aware of hallmarking and the need to test gold purity is necessary as most people make purchases on the basis of their trust with a jeweller instead of checking the hallmark quality.