The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today informed that hallmarking has been made mandatory from 23 June, 2021 for 14, 18, & 22 carat of gold jewellery / artefacts in 256 districts of the country where there is at least one Assaying and Hallmarking Centre (AHC).
As on 20 March, 2022, 1060 hallmarking centres are functional in the country.
The Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID)-based system of hallmarking has been introduced as it was felt necessary that with hallmarking becoming mandatory, the credibility of the hallmark put on every piece of jewellery had to be ensured along with a robust system of real-time monitoring of the entire process. Under HUID, a unique six-digit alphanumeric code is put on each gold jewellery / artifacts item along with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) logo and purity grade mark.
BIS has developed the provision to verify HUID through the BIS CARE App- the official mobile application of BIS. The “Verify HUID” feature can be utilized to verify the purity of the gold jewellery items bearing a HUID number before purchase. Thus, the consumers can be assured of the authenticity of the HUID marked gold jewellery / artifacts items using the BIS Care Mobile App.
Also, regular audit of assaying and hallmarking centres and market surveillance of BIS registered jewellers is undertaken to ensure that they comply to the requirement of BIS hallmarking scheme. Testing of random market samples drawn from registered jewellers is carried out to ensure the purity of hallmarked gold jewellery / artifacts is as per the marked purity on the article. In case of failure, action is taken both against the AHC who has hallmarked the article and the jeweler who has got the article hallmarked.
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