BIS to start checking for non-compliance of gold hallmarking norm in Uttarakhand

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) will start conducting inspections against the jewellers for non-compliance with the mandatory gold hallmarking norms in Uttarakhand. The bureau will start this initiative from Dehradun as the maximum number of BIS certified jewellers are from here. The central government made hallmarking on gold jewellery and other related items mandatory under the BIS Regulations from June 16 for jewellers with annual turnover above Rs 40 lakh. Since BIS recognised Assaying and Hallmarking (A and H) Centres are currently present in Dehradun and Pithoragarh districts so far, only the eligible jewellers of these districts will be inspected this month.

The head of the Dehradun branch office of BIS, Sudheer Bishnoi informed that his teams have already started taking random samples from jewellers who claim to sell hallmarked jewellery to verify their claims. He said that the bureau aims to take at least 100 samples by the end of this month to check the authenticity of the gold jewellery being sold in the district.

“We will also conduct inspections to check whether jewellers with over Rs 40 lakh annual turnover are selling pieces of gold jewellery without a hallmark. The bureau will take action against such violations in the district,” stated Bishnoi. Informing about the current status of BIS certified jewellers in the state, he said that there were only about 300 BIS certified jewellers in the state but now this number has increased to about 1,200 in six months.

He informed that there are over 500 BIS certified jewellers in Dehradun alone and only a few in Pithoragarh as numbers of jewellers are less there.

“Since many consumers have also started demanding hallmarked jewellery, jewellers from other areas like Haridwar, Roorkee and Rudrapur are also selling hallmarked jewellery. Many jewellers who are exempted from the mandatory BIS hallmarking rule have also registered for BIS certification voluntarily,” stated Bishnoi. He said that to facilitate the BIS registration for jewellers, a new A and H Centre is also ready to operate in Srinagar. He informed, “We will get the license for the centre this week and remaining formalities are almost done. Jewellers will be able to apply for BIS registration in Srinagar too by the end of this month.”

Courtesy: Daily Pioneer