Saturday, 04 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The number of jewellers selling BIS hallmarked jewellery has gone from 300 to 600 jewellers in the last two months in Dehradun since the Central Government made hallmarking on gold jewellery and other related items mandatory under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Regulations from June.
The head of the Dehradun branch office of BIS, Sudheer Bishnoi informed that many jewellers are applying for a BIS certificate registration in Dehradun and so far, about 300 jewellers have registered in the past two months. He said that there are only about 900 jewellers in the state who are BIS certified but this number will increase soon too. “In the first phase, the government made hallmarking system mandatory in Dehradun and Pithoragarh districts because BIS recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centres are present only in these two districts in the State. When the government sets up more such centres, more jewellers will be registered under BIS as it will make the registration process much more accessible across the state,” stated Bishnoi.
Recently, many jewellers in various states protested against the government for the Hallmarking Unique Identity (HUID) norms in the hallmarking system. It is a six-digit unique identification number that is engraved on pieces of gold jewellery but as per the jewellers, it has nothing to do with gold’s purity.
According to the president of Dehradun Sarrafa Mandal, Sunil Masson, jewellers are fine with hallmark but HUID is an unnecessary step in the hallmarking system that increases the burden of jewellers when they have to hallmark the pieces of jewellery, especially during wedding seasons. He said that the associations recently had a talk with the government who has assured that this issue will be resolved. Bishnoi also said that the government has made some changes regarding the HUID issue but no written orders have been issued yet. When orders will be issued, they will be implemented in the state too, said Bishnoi.
What is hallmarking?
Hallmarking is a process that is done by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to guarantee the purity of a certain gold item. Explaining the hallmarking system, the head of the Dehradun branch office of BIS, Sudhir Bishnoi said that three marks are marked in a gold article to represent its purity. “The first mark is of Assaying and Hallmarking Centres where the marking of jewellery is done. The second mark represents the purity of gold. For example, if the gold article is made of 22-carat gold, it will be marked as 22 K 916 which means the article has 91.6 per cent of gold. The third mark is a six-digit number called Hallmarking Unique Identity (HUID) which is different for every piece of article,” explained Bishnoi.
