BIS seizes spuriously hallmarked gold worth over Rs 1.5 crores in raids across Maharashtra

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has carried out a special enforcement search and seizure drive in major cities of Maharashtra to check the misuse of the BIS Hallmark on gold jewellery. Raids were carried out last week simultaneously at six locations in the state, including main hubs such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur. The department seized spuriously Hallmarked gold worth over Rs 1.5 crores during the drive.

BIS is the National Standards Body of India under Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

Buyers are advised to be aware and look for these three signs before buying gold.

1. BIS Standard mark

Any gold jewellery with the BIS hallmark will display the BIS logo, signifying that the purity of the product has been verified by one of the BIS’s authorised labs. Customers can recognise this logo on any gold or silver jewellery and coin. The only organisation in India with official approval to hallmark gold objects to certify their purity is BIS.

b) Purity/Fineness Grade

The second mark that verifies pure gold in the jewellery is the fineness number and karat (denoted as KT or K). Gold alloys with other metals like silver and zinc are used to create a durable type of gold since 24K gold is too soft and malleable to be used for jewellery.

Another technique to gauge the purity of gold in jewellery is to use the fineness number, which measures purity in parts per thousand. It is simply another word for 22K gold. For, e.g., if 22K gold weighs 100 gm, it contains 91.6 gm of pure gold per 100 grams of alloy.

c) 6-digit alpha-numeric code or HUID

Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number is a six-digit Alphanumeric code consisting of numbers and letters. HUID is given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking and it is unique for every piece of jewellery.

The jewellery is stamped with the unique number manually at the Assaying & Hallmarking centre. HUID gives a unique identity to each piece of jewellery enabling traceability. It is critical to the credibility of Hallmarking and addressing complaints regarding the purity of Hallmarked jewellery.

Courtesy: Zeebiz