New Delhi ; The government has moved one step closer to hallmarking precious metals jewellery compulsory with Bureau of Indian Standards Act coming into effect from Oct 12. The Act “establishes the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) as National Standards Body of India,” a government release said. Provisions have also been made for mandatory hallmarking of precious metals articles. Jewellers expect the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to direct the Bureau of Indian Standards to make hallmarking compulsory and fix a timeline for its gradual implementation.
The hallmarking of precious metals jewellery has been voluntary till now and only 20,000 jewellers of a total 300,000 registered jewellers are working with the bureau’s licence.
“We expect the government to give jewellers ample time to implement the compulsory hallmarking as there are 500 hallmarking centres across the country. We are now waiting for BIS to notify the rules,” Harshad Ajmera, president of the Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres said.
Jewellers expect the Act to make the industry accountable and protect consumers’ interests. The Act enables the central government to appoint any authority or agency to verify the conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity.
New norms on gold transactions in 1 month
The government will notify new limits for reporting transactions in gold and other precious metals and stones within a month, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said. “We will study the whole matter…We are yet to decide the norms. It will take some time, maybe 15-20 days or a month. We do not want to hit our businesses while they comply with the requirements,” Adhia said. Earlier this month, the government had revoked a notification on know-your-customer norms under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. In a notification issued on Aug 23, the government had imposed stringent norms on jewellers, restricting jewellery sales without proof of identity–such as Aadhaar card, Permanent Account Number or passport—to 50,000 rupees from 200,000 rupees earlier.
