Gold jewellery that have four symbol hall mark cannot be sold from April 1 as a government order issued earlier this month says no one can sell, display or offer to sell gold jewellery or gold artefacts if not hallmarked according to the new norms that came into force from July 2021.
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B. Sabarinath, president of Tamilnadu Jewellers Federation, says every jeweller will have stock of jewellery that were made four or five years ago or even earlier. The retailers will only ensure that they sell hallmarked jewellery. It will take at least two months for every jeweller to identify and segregate jewellery with the four symbol hallmark from those that were hallmarked recently.
The government gave just a month’s time to re-stamp the hall mark for all jewellery according to the norms that came into effect from July 2021. “We need at least six months. The servers have been slow for the last 15 days and it is difficult for the manufacturers and sellers to change all these jewellery to the new hallmark,” he said.
B. Muthuvenkatram, president of Coimbatore Jewellery Manufacturers Association, points out that the government is asking the manufacturers and retailers to re-stamp hallmark in all the jewellery that have the four symbol hallmark. The manufacturers and sellers need time till March 2024 to do this. If they have 10% stock with the old hallmark after that, the government should give one more year’s time.
The hallmark mobile app shows all details or manufacturers and sellers. The BIS officials are regularly checking the hallmark in jewellery. If samples fail three times in a year, they can stop the assaying centre from doing the hallmark. But, redoing the hallmark for all jewellery stocks before April 1 is almost impossible, he says.