In a move aimed at protecting the interests of consumers and prevent frauds in sale of gold jewellery, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to make hallmarking of gold mandatory. At present, hallmarking of gold is voluntary in nature.
The move to hallmark gold will certainly provide value and authenticity to the jewellery bought by the consumers and amounts to purity certification of the yellow metal. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), under the Consumer Affairs Ministry, is the administrative authority of hallmarking.
The Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cleared the proposal by approving amendments to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 1986, that aims to expand the ambit of mandatory hallmarking to include more products, including gold.
The BIS (Amendment) Bill, will empower the government to bring in compulsory certification regime any article and/or process that it considers necessary from the point of view of health, safety, environment and prevention of deceptive practice. At present, about 77 items, including cement, mineral water and milk products, are certified through mandatory hallmarking under the BIS Act for conformity with expected quality levels. The BIS hallmark bestows on the consumer additional confidence on the quality of products such as gold jewellery.
Besides mandatory hallmarking, the amendments moved by the Consumer Affairs Ministry sought to introduce registration of relevant standards as an alternative mechanism to the compulsory certification regime to facilitate growth of sunrise sectors and protect consumers from spurious and substandard imports.
It also aims to strengthen the penal provision for better and effective compliance.
