[Precious Metal]Indian gold jewellery industry calls for amendment in Hallmarking Act

By  Paul Ploumis 10 Aug 2015  Last updated at  08:06:35 GMT

The Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres has called for passage of the amendments to the BIS Act 1985, pending before the Parliament.

NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): The gold jewellery industry in India has urged the government to implement necessary amendments to the existing hallmarking rules so as to ensure that jewellery sold across the country adheres to uniform standard. It called upon the government to pass the pending amendment to BIS Act 1985, which would ensure proper certification standards.

According to Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres, nearly 500 tonne of gold jewellery were hallmarked at nearly 350 BIS accredited hallmarking centres across the country during 2014-‘15. Almost 2.6 crore pieces of gold jewellery were certified during the year. The hallmarking centres have paid nearly Rs 6 crore to Rs 7 crore as royalty to the BIS, at the rate of 10% of the hallmarking charges. Further, it noted that only around 40% of the jewellery sold in the country is hallmarked.

The country has around 350 hallmarking centres, but they are not present in every part of the country, WGC noted. Southern India alone has 153 centres with Tamil Nadu having 57 centres, followed by Kerala with 39. However, almost one-third of the states and Union Territories in the country don’t have accredited hallmarking centres. The capacity utilization at hallmarking centres in big cities and towns stands at nearly 100%, whereas those in smaller towns operate at 30%-40% capacity utilization rate, the Association noted. The existing number of hallmarking centres is adequate to handle certification requirements, the Association added.

In a recently published report, the World Gold Council (WGC) too had proposed a series of steps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the current hallmarking system prevailing in the country. The report had stated that only 30% of the Indian jewellery gets hallmarked.

Presently, hallmarking is not mandatory in India. As a result, many customers are often cheated with gold jewellery that does not meet purity standards.