The government is planning to make hallmarking of gold bullion mandatory, Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) Director General Pramod Kumar Tiwari said on Monday. According to the BIS chief,  the government is ready with the draft guidelines for this. The development comes after hallmarking gold jewellery was made mandatory earlier last year.  

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Hallmarking -- a quality certification -- has been made mandatory with effect from July 1, 2022 for gold jewellery (14, 18, and 22 carat) and artifacts in 288 districts of the country.

"The demand from stakeholders has been that quality of gold jewellery can be ensured only if the bullion is hallmarked. We have prepared the draft guidlines. So, we have started the consultation process," Tiwari was quoted as saying by PTI.

Gold bullion is used as a raw material for manufacturing of jewellery and its purity is paramount, considering the large volume of jewellery, he said.

Tiwari said BIS has also set up an an advisory group with representations from jewellery, importers, refiners and assaying centres, among others.

"The advisory group will go through the draft guidelines and suggest if any are changes to be made. Thereafter, public comments will be sought on the same," he said.

Hallmarked gold bullion will help in ensuring the desired purity of gold jewellery being manufactured in the country, he added.

As per BIS data, more than 18 crore pieces of gold articles have been hallmarked since implementation of the mandatory hallmarking from July 2022.

Tiwari said about 92.08 per cent of samples have been cleared by BIS referral assaying labs so far in the current fiscal.

India is the world's largest consumer and importer of gold. The country imports about 700-800 tonnes of gold annually.

With agency inputs