Govt to mandate jewellery hallmark standards in 43 more districts

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will add 43 more districts to mandate the jewellery hallmark standards. At present, hallmarking of jewellery items are mandatory in around 288 districts across the country. 

“District coverage is increasing in terms of hallmarking of products. More 43 districts will be added under mandatory compliance of hallmark standards,” said Pramod Kumar Tiwari, director general, BIS.

He also said that post the implementation of the standards, a very less percentage of jewellery was found to be failing the compliance test in a very marginal way.

During the financial year 2022-2023, the number of operative jewellers registered under BIS standards increased from 1,37,315 to 1,51,052. Which, 13,737 licences were issued in FY23 itself.

The standards authority has also increased the number of referral labs from 4 to 7 in FY23.

“We have also increased the market surveillance which has almost doubled,” said another BIS official.

On non-compliance with the hallmarking standards, there is a provision of penalty under sections 15 and 16. The violators will face imprisonment of around one year or they can also be fined from Rs one lakh to five times the value of the product.

The penetration level of regulatory compliance for hallmarks across districts at pan-India level is increasing.

As per BIS data, 8.65 crores of articles have been hallmarked to date by the standards authority. Also, the number of samples drawn increased from 12,995 to 27,831.

“We will mandate the jewellery hallmarking at the pan-India level soon,” said Tiwari.

While responding to the reporters’ query, Tiwari said that it will be at the pan-India level but not in each district because that is not feasible as there are only a few hubs where jewellery is being manufactured.

“We have more than 90 per cent of the jewellery hallmarked in terms of the volume of trade in India,” said Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, ministry of consumer affairs.

As of date, various ministries have issued 111 quality control orders for 458 products under the two different confirmatory assessment schemes. Out of which, 365 products have already been implemented, and 93 products are under implementation.

“After 2014, we have brought about 290 products under mandatory certifications and this is going to increase manifold,” said another official.

More than 600 products are under active consideration of various ministries, which will be further added to the existing list to broaden for the consumers, added the official.