Getting gold jewellery tested set to become easier

BIS policy to allow customers get gold jewellery tested at its local office

Not sure about the purity of gold ornaments you have purchased this festival season? Soon you will be able to get it tested easily at the local office of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The BIS is coming up with a policy by which a customer will be able to get his gold jewellery tested at the Bureau’s local office. In case, the purity is not as guaranteed by the jeweller, the Assaying and Hallmarking (A&H) Centre (the centre that conducts purity check) which carried out the purity test will have to pay thrice as much as the price of the jewellery.

However, action against A&H Centres found over-valuing gold is mild; they simply get away with a penalty if caught and the matter is never reported to the police.

“If a customer has paid Rs.30,000 for a 22 carat ornament, the A&H Centre will have to pay a penalty of Rs.90,000 in case the ornament turns out to be less than 22 carat,” explained an officer with the BIS.

Explaining the procedure of testing gold, the officer said: “Whoever wants to get the gold jewellery tested will have to contact the BIS office in their city. They will be required to deposit their jewellery piece from which the officers will take out one-fourth of a gram as a sample for testing. The result will be out in seven to eight days.”

“For the amount that we take as a sample, a customer can either take money for the same value or can take the sample back after the result is out. In case the purity is as promised, we will give the sample back to the customer with a certificate and in case it is not, we will send a notice to the A&H Centre and they will be required to pay a penalty,” the officer said.

“In case an A&H Centre repeats the mistake, they will have to pay more money each time their tested jewellery turns out to be less pure than promised. This step should act as a deterrent for the A&H Centres for wrong hallmarking,” he added.

Saying that people in India were not aware of hallmarking and the need to test gold purity, the officer said: “We have been trying to create awareness about buying hallmark gold but most of the people make purchases on the basis of their trust with a jeweller instead of checking the hallmark quality. Hallmark, however is very important because it is the purity standard for gold set by the government. If a customer is buying a jewellery piece without hallmark he is getting cheated. I appeal to people to always go for hallmark jewellery whenever making gold/silver purchases.”