Mandatory gold hallmarking in 3 more TN districts
This includes three more districts in Tamil Nadu, in addition to 26 of the 38 districts where it was already rolled out as on April 1.
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NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said the third phase of mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts has come into force in 55 new districts in 16 states and one Union territory.
This includes three more districts in Tamil Nadu, in addition to 26 of the 38 districts where it was already rolled out as on April 1.
Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and was voluntary in nature till June 16, 2021, when the government decided to implement mandatory gold hallmarking in a phased manner.
Currently, 343 districts are covered under mandatory hallmarking. In the first phase, launched on June 23, 2021, 256 districts were covered, while the second phase from April 4, 2022, added 32 more districts.
According to the Consumer Affairs Ministry, an order for implementation of the third phase of the mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and gold artefacts was notified on September 8.
Eight districts will be covered in Bihar, five districts each in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, and four districts in Telangana under the third phase.
Similarly, three districts each will be covered in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab, while two districts each in Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
In Rajasthan, the mandatory gold hallmarking will be implemented in one district during the third phase.
The number of registered jewellers has increased from 34,647 to 1,81,590, while Assaying and Hallmarking Centers (AHCs) rose to 1,471 from 945.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the nodal agency, has been hallmarking more than four lakh gold articles with Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) every day. “More than 26 crore articles of gold jewellery have been hallmarked with HUID so far,” the ministry said.
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 lakh 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 added.