Page 20 - Bullion World Volume 5 Issue 1 January 2025

Bullion World | Volume 5 | Issue 01 | January 2025
B ullion W orld | V olume 5 | I ssue 01 | J anuary 2025

The way forward for

Indian gold & Silver

hallmarking Scheme

Mr James Jose, Managing Director of CGR Metalloys Pvt. Ltd.,

After the introduction of mandatory hallmarking by BIS offering 50% investment subsidy for setting up new Ahcs
with HUID traceability system in June 2021, the gold in new locations,no new Ahcs may come up in the 400
hallmarking scheme has made rapid strides in terms districts,due to their poor business potential.
of volumes and geographic coverage. The quantity of
jewellery hallmarked has grown from 3.5 crore pieces Silver hallmarking may be getting huid traceability in the
in 2020 to 12 crore pieces in 2024, or an average of 4 near future and may come under the mandatory regime
lakh jewellery articles hallmarked every day. Presently in the coming years, as demanded by the parliamentary
361 districts are covered under the mandatory committee on consumer affairs. Silver jewellery is poor
hallmarking regime and the remaining 400 districts are mans gold, but it is considerably lacking in quality
out of the mandatory regime for the reason that there standards, as indicated by various market surveys.
is no hallmarking centre available in these districts. The
number of jewelers registered with BIS for hallmarking
has grown from 35000 in 2021 to 1.95 lakhs jewelers
in 2024. Also the number of hallmarking centres have
grown from 950 in 2021 to 1700 in 2024, spread all over
the 361 districts of the country.

The significant growth in BIS registered jewelers
is mainly attributed to the BIS decision of granting
registration for jewellery manufacturers and wholesalers
also, along with the retail jewellers. These jewellery
suppliers are mostly based in the 10 major jewellery
manufacturing cities of India such as Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, Rajkot, Coimbatore,Trichur etc. And these
suppliers are hallmarking their articles at their first point
of sale, i.e. in their own manufacturing locations and
hence presently 75% of the jewellery hallmarking is
happening in these manufacturing cities; from where
hallmarked jewellery is supplied to jewellery shops all
over India. The ministry and BIS are delighted that even
the consumers in the remaining 400 non mandatory
districts of the country also are getting the benefits of
quality certified hallmarked jewellery. An unintended
corollary is that the hallmarking business is getting
shifted to the 10 manufacuring cities of India, and the
Ahcs in the smaller towns and cities are deprived of any
hallmarking work, leaving them to struggle for survival. Mr James Jose
This also indicate that even when the govt of India is

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