VAIBHAV PARWAT
Aurangabad, July 14:
In order to increase transparency in gold procurement, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has made the hallmarking of gold jewellery mandatory from June 15. Traders with gold marking (purity certificate) are allowed to sell 14 carat, 18 and 22 carat gold. For this, online registration has also started throughout India. While 6,743 jewellers have registered from the state, a total of 192 jewellers from Marathwada including 60 from Aurangabad have registered for hallmarking certification.
Purity certification has been made mandatory for bullion traders. A two-month deadline was also given to the traders. Accordingly, no jeweller will now be able to sell non-hallmarked jewellery after the deadline. As per the new rules, if jewellery or an artifact made of 14, 18, or 22-carat gold is sold without the BIS hallmark, the jeweller could be penalised five times the cost of the object or imprisoned for up to one year. Therefore, bullion traders have started registering for the hallmarking certification. For this, online registration is being done on the BIS website. Bullion traders are also coming forward for hallmarking. Giving more information, hallmarking quality manager Bhushan Saraf said jewellers across the state have started registering and so far, a total of 6,743 bullion traders from Maharashtra have registered. In all, 192 jewellers from Marathwada have registered for hallmarking. Among them 60 from Aurangabad, 10 from Jalna, 6 from Parbhani, 38 from Beed, 24 from Latur, 37 from Osmanabad, 16 from Nanded and 1 from Hingoli have registered for the certification.
HUID code to every jewellery
After registering on the website, each jeweller will be given a unique HUID number that will inform consumers about the maker of the jewellery, where it was hallmarked and its purity. The ID number will give a different identity to each set thus curbing frauds.