Jewellery hallmarking must in 256 districts from today
The government has announced that mandatory hallmarking will be implemented in 256 districts which have hallmarking centres. There will be no coercive action against jewellers till September 1.
After a meeting with jewellers and trade representatives, the minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said that mandatory hallmarking will come into effect from Wednesday in these 256 districts. The jewellers will have to sell hallmarked jewellery and get their entire inventory hallmarked by September 1. Till then, the government officials will not take any coercive action against the jewellers for stocking nonhallmarked jewellery.
In the remaining districts, steps will be taken to set up hallmarking centres at a fast pace. As and when the centres are set up, jewellers will have to get the Bureau of Indian Standards licence and get their inventory hallmarked. There will be more than 450 districts which do not have hallmarking centres, said a traders' association.
Mandatory hallmarking has been exempted for jewellers with less than Rs 40 lakh turnover. Kundan and polka jewellery, and jewel-studded watches are also exempt from hallmarking.
The fee for BIS registration has been withdrawn. In future hallmarking will be the responsibility of the manufacturer.
Over 37,000 jewellers have already registered their business with the BIS and another 63,000 are expected to get their registration done.
Meanwhile, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has adjourned the hearing of the case on hallmarking to June 28. Earlier, it had given a relief from coercive action till June 14th. This relief will also get extended till then.
"BIS reports find that around 5 crore jewellery pieces were hallmarked last year and this can come to almost twothirds of the annual consumption, or around 400 tonnes. An additional 200 tonnes need to be hallmarked every year and this can be done at the 25 to 30 per cent of hallmarking centres which are under-utilised," said James Jose, managing director, CGR Hallmarkers.