Gold hallmarking becomes mandatory in 13 districts of Bihar

The new hallmarking policy has become effective in 13 districts of the state, including Patna, from Wednesday

The new hallmarking policy has become effective in 13 districts of the state, including Patna, from Wednesday.

HT Image

According to the guidelines issued on June 15 by the Ministry Of Consumer Affairs, Food And Public Distribution, hallmarking will be made mandatory only at the places having hallmarking centres.

In Bihar, only 13 districts, including Patna, Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Darbhanga, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Nalanda, Rohtas, Samastipur, Saran Begusarai and Nawada, have the hallmarking centres. While Patna has 12 such centres, the remaining 12 districts have one centre each.

Under the new policy, hallmarking of jewellery is now mandatory. On June 15, the Ministry announced that the policy would be effective only in 256 districts having hallmarking centres across the country.

“It has offered great relief to the thousands of jewellers who needed the hallmarking facility. They were worried about how to get their jewellery hallmarked during the pandemic,” Ashok Verma, the state convener of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), said.

Besides, the new policy has come up with a much-needed relief to the small traders also. “Most of these small budget traders get jewellery on loan from big traders for business. They do not use hallmarking while many small traders have not even registered themselves with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS),” he said.

Out of over two lakh jewellers in the state, which includes 7,000 in the state capital, only 1,000 jewellers have registered with the BIS. “The rest of the jewellers have been doing it without the licence. They were mainly worried about how to cope up with the requirements of the new hallmarking policy. Under the new hallmarking scheme of the BIS, jewellers would register for selling hallmarked jewellery,” he said. However, traders with turnover below ₹40 lakh have been spared even from this mandatory registration with the BIS, he added.

Premnath Gupta, the All India Jewellers and Goldsmiths Federation (AIJGF) secretary, said the new policy is far more beneficial for the buyers. “There will guarantee of quality and purity of the precious metal at every gold shop.

This facility is essential for those gold buyers who prefer to purchase gold from the jewellers who have been close to their families, he added. “There’s no chance of any tampering as the small traders will get only hallmarked precious metals from the wholesale dealers,” he said.