Govt extends mandatory gold hallmarking to 55 more districts

The third phase of implementation of the mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and gold artifacts started on Friday with the government extending hallmarking facility to 55 more districts.

The gold hallmarking system now covers 343 districts across the country. The hallmarking centres have been set up in close proximity to business centres so as to service the regions where gold consumption is greater.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has brought out a list of the new districts covered by the mandatory gold hallmarking system, which is also available on its website, www.bis.gov.in.

BIS started implementing the mandatory hallmarking rules for gold jewellery and artifacts in 256 districts across the country in two phases – first from 4 April 2022 and then from 23 June 2023.

Currently more than 4 lakh gold articles are being hallmarked with HUID across the country every day and the number of registered jewellers have increased from 34,647 in Phase 1 to 1, 81,590 under Phase 2. The number of hallmarking centres has also increased to 1,471 at present from 945 in the first phase.

So far, more than 260 million gold jewellery items have been hallmarked with `HUID’.

Meanwhile, in signs that the consumers are increasingly becoming quality conscious, the number of downloads of BIS Care App have increased to 1.24 million from 2.3 lakh since April last year while the number of ‘verify HUID’ hits during this period has shot up to over 10 million.

As gold prices zoom, consumers are also demanding that the gold they buy meet the purity and quality specified.