The Centre will make hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts mandatory from Wednesday by issuing a formal notification, but it will give one year’s time to jewellers and retailers to register themselves with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and clear their old stock.
Gold hallmarking, which certifies the purity of gold, has so far been operating on a voluntary basis in recent years. It has being encouraged by the government because of widespread complaints about impurity of gold sold in the market.
The BIS is already running a hallmarking scheme for gold jewellery since April 2000 and around 40% of gold jewellery is being hallmarked currently.
No jeweller will be allowed to sell any kind of gold ornaments without hallmark from January 15, 2021, food and consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters. He said hallmarked ornaments would be available only in the caratage of 14, 18 and 22.
Traders and jewellers say nonhallmarked jewellery is likely to be sold at a discount, which may hit sellers in small towns, where such ornaments are sold because consumers are not as demanding about purity and standards as in metropolitan areas.
The minister said the government’s initiative will help consumers across the country.
“Hallmarking has been made mandatory to protect the consumer against lower caratage and ensure that they don’t get cheated while buying gold jewellery. This will benefit especially poor people in villages and small towns who are not able to make out the purity of gold they have been buying,” Paswan said.
He said a penal provision has been made for those who violate the hallmarking rule.
“They will have to pay a minimum fine of ?1 lakh or five times the price of the article. There could be one-year imprisonment also,” Paswan said.
He said the hallmarking rule will not be applicable to consumers and they will be free to sell jewellery to jewelers even after January 15, 2021.
“Consumers can sell their jewellery to jewellers without hallmarking. But jewellers can’t resell the jewellery without getting it hallmarked,” Paswan said.
He said the facility of hallmarking is available for consumers also who want to get their old jewellery stamped. There are 892 assaying and hallmarking centres spread across 234 districts and so far 28,849 jewellers have been registered.
Before making the hallmarking mandatory, a draft quality control order (QCO) was hosted on World Trade Organisation (WTO) website on October 10, 2019 for comments for a period of 60 days. “No comments were received on the draft QCO,” Paswan said.