INTRODUCTION
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution announced via a press release dated June 15, 2021 mandatory hallmarking of Gold jewelry from June 16, 2021[1]. Since gold is of such intrinsic value and is considered to be a popular investment choice for majority of people, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in order to safeguard consumers from adulteration and to oblige jewelers to maintain legal purity standards has taken this noteworthy step.
As per the press release, the registration of jewellers will be one time and no official fees will be charged from jewellers for registration. To ensure that manufacturers, whole-sellers and retailers have adequate time, they have been given time till August, 2021 to get their current gold jewellery stock assessed by the gold hallmarking center without any penalty.
REGISTRATIONS DONE UNDER THE HALLMARKING SCHEME
With mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts for 14, 18 and 22 carat jewellery and relaxation of registration fees by BIS authorities, close to 6,000 Jewelers have been registered under the Hallmarking Scheme in a span of 3 days only.
To ensure that manufacturers, whole-sellers and retailers have adequate time, they have been given time till August,2021 to get their current gold jewellery stock assessed by the gold hallmarking center without any penalty and the registration process has also been further simplified by making it online, so as to avoid visit to the BIS office during the pandemic.
[1] https://ssrana.in/articles/mandatory-hallmarking-gold-jewelry/