India Government Makes Gold Hallmarking Mandatory

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Indian government has decided to make hallmarking mandatory for gold jewellery with effect from January 1, 2020. The move is to ensure superior quality of gold ornaments purchased by customers. It must be noted that the World Trade Organization (WTO) had set December 8, 2019 as the deadline for the country to meet gold benchmark standards.

According to Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the government plans to implement gold hallmarking in four phases, metro cities to begin with. The jewellers will be granted a year’s time to get their gold products hallmarked, in accordance with the guidelines set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). As part of implementation of the proposed plan, the government will open additional hallmarking centres across the country, in addition to the already existing 861 centres, which are mainly concentrated in metropolitan cities.

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Although the move is expected to benefit the industry and consumers in the long run, jeweller trade associations have expressed concerns that it may impact gold sales in the country in the near term. Meantime, mandatory hallmarking could boost the demand for Indian jewellery in foreign markets. Also, it will help to clear the confusion in domestic market with respect to purity of gold ornaments.