Mandatory gold hallmarking sees slow start

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Feb 18, 2020

Jewellery businesses in the unorganised, rural section of the market appear to be slow on the uptake on the recent regulation making gold hallmarking mandatory, as awareness about the regulation remains lacking.

 
After the government made gold hallmarking mandatory in January, 2020, with a year’s period for implementation, it has been met with a slow response from the unorganised gold trade, ET Bureau reported.

Currently only around 30,000 of India’s three-lakh jewellery businesses are registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards, the first step required towards facilitating hallmarking.

“Jewellers are coming to hallmarking centres to know more about registering with the BIS,” said Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres president Uday Shinde, ET Bureau reported.

“We are expecting that by October, about one lakh jewellers will opt for hallmarking.” That will leave around half of India’s jewellers less than three months to register.
 
Mandatory gold hallmarking was introduced by the government with the aim of organising the Indian fine jewellery market and increasing consumer trust in the industry.

From January 15, 2021, jewellers will only be allowed to retail gold that has been hallmarked at 14, 18, and 22 karat levels of purity.