Jewellers hail Government's decision to make hallmarking of gold mandatory

New Delhi [India], June 16 : Many jewellers across the country have hailed the government's decision making it mandatory for gold jewellery and other gold items to be hallmarked.
In Gujarat's Surat, the owner of D Khushalbhai Jewellers, Deepak said: "We are happy with this decision. It will build trust between the seller and buyer. Customers will get 100 per cent hallmarked jewellery across the country. They will get cent percent pure gold."
Sheetal Choksi, a customer at the jewellery store said: "This decision will benefit us hugely. We can now be sure that we won't be cheated and that the gold that we buy is 100 per cent pure."
In Mumbai too jewellers were elated. The President of India Bullion and Jewellers Association, Mumbai, Prithviraj Kothari said, "We welcome the decision but the government should have given us more time to sell the jewellery that has not been hallmarked. This step by the government will build people's confidence in us."
"Hallmark gives us more trust while buying gold. Hallmark means it's pure jewellery and you can buy it from anywhere," said a customer browsing for jewellery at a store in the country's financial capital.
Piyush Gupta, director, PP Jewellers in Delhi said the central government's decision will assuage apprehensions of customers about the purity of the metal.
"People often have doubts about the purity of jewellery. This is a positive step and will instill faith in customers towards jewellers", Gupta said.
Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) at a virtual press conference briefed media persons about the Mandatory Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery scheme which has come into force from today.
Tiwari shared that mandatory hallmarking will be initially be implemented in 256 districts of the country, which have assaying marking centres.
He further added that Jewellers with annual turnover upto Rs. 40 lakh will be exempted from mandatory hallmarking.
Export and re-import of jewellery as per Trade Policy of Government of India - Jewellery for international exhibitions, jewellery for government-approved B2B domestic exhibitions will also be exempted from mandatory Hallmarking. Watches, fountain pens and special types of jewellery viz. Kundan, Polki and Jadau will be exempted from Hall Marking.
He further informed that the registration of jewellers will be one-time and there will be no fees will be charged from jewellers for registration. Any manufacturer, importer, wholesaler, distributor or retailer engaged in selling precious metal articles has to mandatorily get registered with BIS. However, artisans or manufacturers who are manufacturing the gold jewellery on job work basis for the jewellers and are not directly related to sale to anyone in the chain are exempted for registration.
In his media briefing the DG, BIS said that the Hallmarking shall be done at the first point of sale which may be manufacturer, whole-seller, distributor or retailer.
Alteration in the Hallmarked jewellery up to 2 grams of increase or decrease to be allowed with responsibility of purity on the jeweller, he said.
He further added that there has always been a high demand from jewellers to increase the grades of gold purity for hallmarking. Considering this, gold of Additional carats i.e. 20, 23 and 24 will also be allowed for Hallmarking.
It was clarified that old un-hallmarked jewellery available in households can be sold to jewellers. Tiwari added that jewellers can continue to buy back old gold jewellery without hallmark from consumer and in order to give adequate time to the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of gold jewellery, there would be no penalties till August end.
While briefing the media about Workflow Automation of A&H Centres, DG BIS said that every job from receipt of jewellery to hallmarking will be computerized and the complete trail of each job with date & time will be maintained. He said the anonymity of the sample will also be maintained after assigning Job Number until the stage of hallmarking. He said from now onwards Hallmark will include a six-digit code along with BIS Mark and Purity and delivery voucher to be issued to Jeweller for utmost transparency.