Capital subsidy for gold assaying

The Centre is considering providing 15 per cent capital subsidy for setting up gold assaying centres under the public-private partnership mode as the private sector has not shown enough interest in setting up such centres.

The Department of Consumer Affairs proposes to provide 15 per cent of the amount as capital subsidy under the Gold Hallmarking Scheme, to set up such centres in major cities.

The Centre had proposed opening testing centres under the scheme, meant to certify the purity of gold. Till last year, it was considering allowing private players to open these centres.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), is responsible for the gold hallmarking scheme. BIS started the scheme in 2000 on the recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India to protect common consumers from being cheated with low-purity gold.

Gold hallmarking consists of the BIS mark, the purity mark certifying whether the gold is of 23 carat or 22 or 21 carat and even has specifications corresponding to 18, 14 and 9 carat gold.

There is also the year of marking and the hallmarking centre's identification. The charges are also low and the fee for hallmarking ranges between Rs 20 and Rs 100 per article, depending on the weight.