The government said that the 3rd phase of mandatory stamp marking of gold has come into force
New Delhi:
The government said on Friday that the third phase of mandatory stamping of gold jewelery and artefacts has come into effect in 55 new districts in 16 states and one Union territory.
Gold stamping is a purity certification of the precious metal and was voluntary until June 16, 2021, when the government decided to implement mandatory gold stamping in stages.
Currently, a total of 343 districts are subject to mandatory stamp marking. In the first phase launched on 23 June 2021, 256 districts were covered, while the second phase from 4 April 2022 included 32 more districts.
According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, an order was announced on 8 September to implement the third phase of the mandatory stamp marking of gold jewelery and gold objects.
The third phase of the mandatory stamping will cover another 55 new districts in 16 states and one Union territory, it said in a statement.
Eight districts, including East Champaran, will be covered in Bihar, five districts each in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and four districts in Telangana during the third phase.
Three districts each 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.
In Rajasthan, the mandatory gold stamping will be implemented in one district – Jalore – in the third phase.
The nodal agency Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has successfully implemented mandatory hallmarking in the last two phases, with more than 4 lakh gold articles being stamped with Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) every day.
Since the implementation of mandatory hallmarking, the ministry said, the number of registered jewelers has increased from 34,647 to 1,81,590, while Assaying and Hallmarking Centers (AHCs) increased to 1,471 from 945.
“More than 26 crore pieces of gold jewelery have been stamped with HUID so far,” the ministry said.
Consumers are encouraged to verify the authenticity and purity of the stamped gold jewelery with the HUID number purchased by using ‘verify HUID’ in the BIS Care app which can be downloaded from the Play Store.
The number of downloads of BIS Care App has increased from 2.3 lakhs during 2021-22 to 12.4 lakh in the current financial year. Further, more than one million hits of ‘verify HUID’ in the BIS Care app have been recorded to date during the last two years, it added.
(With the exception of the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)