The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Chennai, has started receiving more enquiries to set up assaying and hallmarking centres in districts where such facilities are not available. With the mandatory gold hallmarking coming into effect from mid-June, BIS is planning to launch a portal from July 1 for the hallmarking process.
As of now, mandatory hallmarking for gold jewellery and artefacts for 14, 18 and 22 carat jewellery has been started in 24 districts of the State and Puducherry, which have assaying marking centres, during the first phase. The districts include Chennai, Tirunelveli, Namakkal and Erode.
Gold hallmarking is a certification of purity of the precious metal. Officials of the BIS, Chennai, which is the certifying and enforcing authority, said they receive enquiries to start assaying centres from districts like Kancheepuram and Ranipet.
There has been a 20% increase in the number of jewellers registering after the online process was made mandatory. Nearly 3,549 jewellers across Tamil Nadu have so far obtained BIS registration certificate that facilitates them to process hallmarking of gold jewellery. Of this, about 400 jewellers from Chennai have registered with BIS. However, artisans and those who are not directly related to sales have been exempted from registration.
“We have simplified the registration process online to avoid visits to the BIS office during the pandemic. Those jewellers with an annual turnover up to ₹40 lakh have been exempted from mandatory hallmarking. We are also communicating to jewellers to activate their registration process to enable them to assay jewellery,” G. Bhavani, Scientist E and Head Chennai Branch office-1, BIS.
At present, there are 103 assaying and hallmarking centres in the State and of this, 28 were in Chennai.
BIS has set up a help desk for jewellers and plans to launch an exclusive portal for hallmarking that can be accessed through e-BIS. “This would also help us monitor the entire process of hallmarking. We are also creating awareness among jewellers about the portal. The assaying process of a particular lot of jewels would take four to six hours,” she added.
In a bid to provide adequate time for registration and hallmarking, there would be no penalty till August end. However, jewellers may continue to buy old jewellery without a hallmark from consumers.
But, the Jewellers and Diamond Traders’ Association, Madras noted that it would be difficult to implement hallmarking during the pandemic. Its president, Jayantilal Challani, said there were nearly 7,000 jewellers in the city alone. Creating awareness among jewellers and initiating the hallmarking process would be challenging immediately after the lockdown.
