The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has recently issued the draft Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and gold Artefacts Order, 2019 for making hallmarking of gold jewellery and gold artefacts mandatory. This order is also referred to as the draft Quality Control Order (“QCO”). The Bureau of Indian Standards, Hallmarking Department has invited comments from stakeholders to be sent by email to hallmarking@bis.gov.in .
Key Highlights of the draft QCO:
- Precious metal articles of gold including gold jewellery and gold artefacts notified with hallmark as per Government orders, needs to be mandatorily sold by Registered Jewellers through certified sales outlets.
- Precious metal articles specified in column (2) of the Table in page 3 of the source document will have to conform to the Indian Standard given in column (3) of the Table and based on such conformation, will receive a certificate under Bureau of Indian Standards (Hallmarking) Regulations, 2018.
- Contravention of the provisions of the QCO will be punishable under the provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016.
Exceptions to the QCO includes:
- Precious metals meant for export conforming to specifications required by the foreign buyers;
- an article with less than 2g weight;
- any article of gold thread;
- any manufactured article which is not substantially complete, and which is intended for further manufacture;
- an article which is in course of consignment outside India to an assaying & Hallmarking Centre in India recognized as per Bureau of Indian Standards (Hallmarking) Regulations, 2018 for hallmarking;
- gold bullion in any shape of bar, plate, sheet, foil, rod, wire, strip, tube or coin.
Source: Bureau of Indian Standards
