Hallmarking Likely To Become Mandatory For All Types Of Gold

Gold hallmarking is mandatory only for gold jewellery and artefacts in India. Since April 1, 2023, the six-digit Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number has become compulsory for jewellers before selling the item. However, now the hallmarking is expected to become mandatory for all types of gold, including imported gold, bullion, and gold purchased by jewellers, tentatively from January 2025, as per a report by Hindustan. According to it, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and concerned stakeholders have agreed to make hallmarking mandatory for all types of gold and the BIS committee has submitted the report on the matter.

Until 2021, it was voluntary for the jewellers to bear the mark on the jewellery to be sold, but from 2021, 6-digit hallmarking has become mandatory. But it is mandatory only for gold jewellery, coins, and artefacts. Now the idea is to expand the coverage. The plan is to make hallmarking mandatory for all types of gold, including imported gold, gold purchased by jewellers, and gold bullion.

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What Is Hallmarking?

According to the BIS, “Hallmarking is the accurate determination and official recording of the proportionate content of precious metal in the jewellery/artefacts or bullion/coins.” It is a certification conforming to the purity of the article along with other details.

Background:

Gold is a soft metal and needs to be alloyed with other metals to make it wearable. But due to this reason, there is always a risk of adulteration, which at the same time is very difficult to find out without technically testing it. That is how common buyers are cheated by unscrupulous sellers under good faith. To address this issue, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been identified as the sole agency to implement a gold hallmarking scheme in 2000, to create quality standards for gold and safeguard consumers from cheating.

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Hallmarking For All Types Of Gold:

The government wants to bring more transparency and monitoring of the gold business through mandatory hallmarking of all types of gold. By bringing imported gold also under the hallmarking, it will have better watch over the quality of gold imported, transparency in the gold business in India, and can mitigate the scope of adulteration. It will help the government to have records of all types of gold and monitor it.

However, the concern is that the assaying and hallmarking centres (AHCs) are not present in all districts in India. At present, there are around 1622 AHCs, and approximately 4 lakh gold items are hallmarked every day. There are charges, though nominal at around Rs 52 per piece, for getting your gold item hallmarked; the issue remains that the hallmarking centres are less than required. Experts believe that the AHCs need to be increased if the government wants to hallmark all types of gold.

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What Can End-Buyers Know Through A Hallmark?

One can check the details of the item through the hallmark, including the purity of the item, type, the hallmark centre that tested the article, who got the article hallmarked, and their registration number. They can do so on the BIS CARE app.