New Delhi: The third phase of the mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts comes into force and will cover an additional 55 new districts under the mandatory hallmarking system, after the Government of India notified the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Third Amendment) Order, 2023, today.
This brings 343 districts of the country under mandatory hallmarking.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) said it has been successful in the implementation of Mandatory Hallmarking in 256 districts of the country with effect from June 23, 2021, in the first phase and in the additional 32 districts with effect from April 4, 2022, in second phase wherein more than 4 lakh gold articles are being hallmarked with Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) every day.
Since the implementation of mandatory hallmarking, the number of registered jewellers has increased from 34,647 to 1,81,590 while Assaying and Hallmarking Centers (AHCs) have increased from 945 to 1471. More than 26 crore articles of gold jewellery have been hallmarked with HUID so far.
“Consumers are encouraged to verify the authenticity and purity of the hallmarked gold jewellery items with HUID number purchased by using ‘verify HUID’ in BIS Care app which can be downloaded from the Play Store,” the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, stated. It mentioned that the number of downloads of the BIS Care App has increased from 2.3 lakhs during 2021-22 to 12.4 lakhs in the current Financial Year. Further, more than one crore hits of ‘verify HUID’ in the BIS Care App have been recorded as of date in the span of the last two years, it informed.
– global bihari bureau
