Third Phase Of Mandatory Gold Hallmarking Rolled Out At 55 New Districts In 17 States/UT

Gold hallmarking, the purity certification, was initially a voluntary practice. However, on June 16, 2021, the government decided to enforce mandatory gold hallmarking in a phased manner

The third phase of the mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and gold artifacts has come into force at 55 new districts in 16 states and 1 UT from September 8, 2023. Gold hallmarking, which certifies the purity of the precious metal, was initially a voluntary practice. However, on June 16, 2021, the government decided to enforce mandatory gold hallmarking in a phased manner.

A release by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on Thursday said, "The third phase of the mandatory hallmarking will cover additional 55 new districts under the mandatory hallmarking system, wherein a hallmarking centre has been setup post implementation of the second phase of the mandatory hallmarking order thereby making the total number of districts covered under mandatory hallmarking as 343."

Notably, the first phase was launched on June 23, 2021, in which 256 districts were covered while the the second phase from April 4, 2022, added 32 more districts. The third phase was notified on September 8.

 

During the third phase of implementation, eight districts, including East Champaran, will be included in Bihar, while five districts each in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, along with four districts in Telangana, will also adopt the program. Furthermore, three districts each will participate from Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, with two districts each from Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. Rajasthan will implement mandatory gold hallmarking in one district, Jalore, during this phase.

 

 

Since the implementation of mandatory hallmarking, as per the Consumer Affairs Ministry, the number of registered jewellers has increased from 34,647 to 1,81,590, while Assaying and Hallmarking Centers (AHCs) rose to 1,471 from 945.

"More than 26 crore articles of gold jewellery have been hallmarked with HUID so far," the ministry said.

"Consumers are encouraged to verify the authenticity and purity of the hallmarked gold jewellery items with HUID number purchased by using ‘verify HUID’ in BIS Care app which can be downloaded from the play store," it further said.