In view of the COVID-19 situation in the country and a surging second wave of the pandemic, Centre has accepted the request of stakeholders to give gold jewellers more time to prepare for the implementation of gold hallmarking rules. Earlier, mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery was supposed to begin on June 1, 2021.

Centre has now formed a committee to resolve all implementation issues and ensure smooth rollout of mandatory gold hallmarking by June 15.

Pramod Tewari DG (BIS) will be the convener of the said committee and Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, along with representatives of jewellers’ associations, trade and hallmarking bodies, etc., will be members of the committee.

Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry, who is reviewing the progress made in the implementation of mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery in India, has said that customers must get hallmark certified gold across the country at the earliest.
Goyal opines that -- India must have the world's best standards in gold jewellery.

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Bureau of Indian Standards, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, to discuss gold hallmarking, the Union Minister said that constructive suggestions will be incorporated and teething issues in implementation would be resolved by the committee.

Notably, at present, only 30 percent of Indian gold jewellery is hallmarked. According to World Gold Council, India has around four lakh jewellers, out of which only 35,879 are BIS certified at the moment.

The central government had first issued quality control orders for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery/artefacts on January 15, 2020. The date was extended to June 1, 2021, to help clear out old stock of non-hallmarked gold jewellery.