Gold jewellery sale and gold artefacts hallmarked without six-digit code to be banned from April 1

sale of gold jewellery and gold artefacts without a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number shall not be permitted in the country from April 1, Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Friday.

The HUID is a unique 6-digit alphanumeric code consisting of numbers and letters. According to the ministry, the HUID will be given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking and it is unique for every piece of jewellery. This unique number is stamped, manually, on jewellery at the Assaying & Hallmarking centres.

Briefing media, Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, said, “In consumer interest, it has been decided that after 31st March 2023 sale of gold jewellery and gold artefacts hallmarked without HUID shall not be permitted.”

“Earlier, the HUID used to be of four digits. As of now both HUIDs (4- and 6-digit) are used in the market. We are saying that after March 31 only 6-digit alphanumeric code will be allowed,” Khare added.

She said 256 districts were covered under Mandatory Hallmarking w.e.f 23 June 2021 and 32 more districts covered under Mandatory Hallmarking since June 1, 2022, increasing the number of total districts to 288. Additional 51 new districts with AHCs/OSCs established, whereby the total districts covered would increase to 339, she said.

Khare said 10.56 crore pieces of gold jewellery articles have been Hallmarked till date during 2022-23. She further said that the number of operative BIS Registered Jewellers has increased from 1,53,718 in 2022-23.

Khare also informed that the BIS has decided to grant a concession of 80 per cent on Certification/Minimum Marking Fee for Micro Scale Units. Additionally, 10 per cent concession on certification for units located in the North Eastern states is also provided, she said.

Khare also informed that 38,080 Factory Surveillance have been carried out in 2022-23 as against 29,453 during the corresponding period in 2021-22. She said that 50,068 Market Surveillance have been carried out in 2022-23 as against 19,313 during the corresponding period in 2021-22.

Earlier in the day, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal chaired a review meeting of BIS activities which was attended by Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary Nidhi Khare and other senior officials of the ministry. According to an official statement, Goyal directed the BIS to augment the testing infrastructure in the country.