The government has announced that it is set to implement mandatory hallmarking of all gold jewellery starting June 1. As per the announcement, any 14, 18, or 22 carat gold jewellery must bear a hallmark given by a Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) approved facility. On failing to comply or selling gold jewellery without a hallmark, the jeweller could be penalised five times the cost of the object or imprisoned for up to one year.
The rule was previously to be implemented starting January 2021, as announced by the then Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan, in November 2019. However, due to pandemic-related obstacles, the same was delayed as many jewellers could not comply in the stipulated time.
As per the director general of the BIS, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, the BIS has seen 34,647 registered jewellers so far and they expect the number to go up to one lakh.
The regulation is set in place to prevent any fraud related to lower caratage, as well as to build trust among customers, thus encouraging an increase in purchases. While bigger jewellers already hallmark their gold jewellery, a lot of smaller scale gold jewellery stores might have to go through the process for the first time.
Although gold forms an integral part of the Indian culture, often seen as a traditional form of investment, 2020 saw a sluggish demand for gold consumption as well as a drop in import volumes.
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