The Indian government is making gold hallmarking compulsory this year after which only sales of hallmark certified 14-, 18- or 22-carat gold jewellery will be allowed.
From June 1, 2021 all gold jewelry and artefacts will have to be hallmarked .
Gold hallmarking refers to certification of gold items on the basis of its purity.
Currently only 40% of all sold gold jewelry is hallmarked.
Contents
Procedure Moved Online
Jewellers are being asked to register with the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) which they can now do online without the need for human application processing
They can submit documents, applications and necessary fees on the BIS portal of www.manakonline.in .
They will then acquire a licence at the end of the process. The confirmation will come through a mail and SMS alert which will state the registration number.
Using this number they can download and print the registration certificate.
History Of The Scheme
Presently the exercise is voluntary which began as a scheme in April 2000.
In Nov 2019 the scheme was made mandatory from Jan 15, 2021.
But this deadline had to be extended now to June 1 after several requests owing to the pandemic.
It is significant since India is currently the largest gold importer, bringing in 700-800 tonnes every year.
The imports mainly service the Indian jewelry industry.
Penalty And Ease Of Compliance
If a seller fails to complete the exercise by the given timeline they face the risk of financial penalty or jail time.
They could have to shell out 5x the cost of the gold item.
Alternatively they could be imprisoned for up to one year.
34,647 jewellers are registered with the BIS thus far.
This number is expected to go upto 1 lakh in the next 2 months, as estimated by BIS Director General Pramod Kumar Tiwari.
Reforms easing compliance burden have also been rolled out by automating and digitising the whole process.
In an incentive to start ups and women entrepreneurs the minimum marking fee has been cut by half.
A Pro-Consumer Move
The move is in the interest of the consumers since they can protect themselves from deceit on the quality or purity of gold being sold to them.
The customer will be guarded against being sold a lower cartarage ornament.
There should be no doubts on the purity of the article since the same will come marked.
They can also enjoy an increased resale value should they choose to sell their gold later.
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