Centre announces the third phase of mandatory jewellery hallmarking

To ensure the sale of pure and authentic gold items, the Centre announced that the third phase of the mandatory hallmarking, according to the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Amendment) Order, 2023, came into force on Friday.

“The third phase will cover an additional 55 new districts under the mandatory hallmarking system, wherein a hallmarking centre has been set up after the implementation of the second phase of the mandatory hallmarking order, thereby making the total number of districts covered under mandatory hallmarking as 343,” stated a release from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has successfully implemented mandatory hallmarking in 256 districts of the country starting from 23 June 2020 in the first phase. An additional 32 districts were added in the second phase that started on 4 April 2022.

More than four lakh gold articles are now hallmarked with HUID every day. Since the implementation of the mandatory hallmarking, the number of registered jewellers has gone up from 34,647 to 181,590. Meanwhile, the Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (AHCs) have increased from 945 to 1,471.

“More than 26 crore articles of gold jewellery have been hallmarked with HUID so far,” the release stated.

BIS encourages consumers to verify the authenticity and purity of the hallmarked gold jewellery items with HUID numbers.

BIS registered jewellers:

2020-21 – 34,647

2021-22 – 137,315

2022-23 – 160,866

Until Aug 31, 2023 – 181,590