New Delhi:
The government said Friday that the third phase of the mandatory certification of gold jewelry and artifacts has gone into effect in 55 new districts in 16 states and one Union territory.
Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and was voluntary in nature until June 16, 2021, when the government decided to phase in the mandatory gold hallmarks.
Currently, a total of 343 districts fall under the mandatory labeling. In the first phase, which started on June 23, 2021, 256 districts were covered, while the second phase, starting April 4, 2022, covered an additional 32 districts.
According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, an order to implement the third phase of the mandatory hallmarking of gold jewelry and gold artifacts was announced on September 8.
The third phase of the mandatory labels will cover an additional 55 new districts in 16 states and one Union territory, a statement said.
Eight districts including East Champaran will be covered in Bihar, five districts in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and four districts in Telangana in the third phase.
Each district will be covered in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, while two districts each in Assam, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal will be covered.
In Rajasthan, mandatory gold labeling will be introduced in one district – Jalore – during the third phase.
Nodal Agency Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has successfully implemented mandatory hallmarks in the last two phases, marking over 4 lakh gold items with Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) on a daily basis.
Since the introduction of mandatory certification, the ministry said, the number of registered jewelers has increased from 34,647 to 1,81,590, while the Inspection and Hallmark Centers (AHCs) have increased from 945 to 1,471.
“So far, more than 26 crore gold jewelry has been marked with SKIN,” the ministry said.
Consumers are encouraged to verify the authenticity and purity of the gold jewelery with the purchased HUID number by using ‘verify HUID’ in the BIS Care App, which can be downloaded from the Play Store.
BIS Care App downloads have increased from 2.3 lakh in 2021-2022 to 12.4 lakh in the current financial year. In addition, more than one million hits of “verify SKIN” have been registered in the BIS Care App in the past two years, it added.
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