Centre notifies third phase of mandatory hallmarking to come into force from today

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The Centre on Friday said the third phase of the mandatory hallmarking vide Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Amendment) Order, 2022 will come into force from today, reported news agency ANI.

As per the official statement from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the third phase of the mandatory hallmarking will cover an additional 55 new districts under the mandatory hallmarking system, wherein a hallmarking centre has been set post post-implementation of the second phase of the mandatory hallmarking order thereby making the total number of districts covered under mandatory hallmarking as 343, reported ANI.

The state-wise list of newly added 55 districts under the mandatory hallmarking is available on the website of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under the hallmarking section.

It is notable that BIS has been successful in the implementation of Mandatory Hallmarking in 256 districts of the country with effect from 23 June 2021, in the first phase and in the additional 32 districts with effect from 4 April 2022, in the second phase wherein more than 4 lakh gold articles are being hallmarked with 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 the HUID number purchased by using "verify HUID" in the BIS Care app which can be downloaded from the Play Store.

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 FY. 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.

The Centre has notified the order in this regard and will come into force from June 1, 2022, the ministry said in a statement.

Nodal agency Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has successfully implemented the mandatory gold hallmarking in 256 districts of the country with effect from June 23, 2021, wherein more than 3 lakh gold articles are being hallmarked with Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) every day, it added.

(With inputs from ANI)