Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Nov 12, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Nov 12, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home Page
-
Investor Protection Marketing - Standards & Benchmarks Industry & Economy - Precious Metals BIS plans to make gold hallmarking mandatory C.R. Sukumar
Hyderabad , Nov. 11 IN an attempt to ensure better consumer protection in the backdrop of increasing consumption of gold in the country, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is thinking of making mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery. Before that, however, the BIS proposes to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is in place in the form of recognised gold assaying and hallmarking centres across the country in the next couple of years, according to the BIS Deputy Director-General, Mr S.M. Bhatia. "The key objectives of making hallmarking mandatory include ensuring consumer protection, improving the quality and purity of gold jewellery produced in the country, enhancing exports of gold jewellery, and protecting the economy from improper caratage," he told Business Line. He was in the city to inaugurate a gold assaying and hallmarking centre. According to him, the Centre has allocated Rs 300 crore for setting up assaying and hallmarking centres across the country. "We currently have 33 such recognised centres across the country, with majority of them (18) located in the South. We are aiming at establishing another 35 centres to cover all the States in the next couple of years," Mr Bhatia said. Stating that BIS has gained good experience in running the hallmarking centres, he said the Centre is working to getting membership for BIS in the Vienna Convention, the international convention on marking of precious metals. "The membership of Vienna Convention will benefit three lakh Indian jewellers to export their products across the globe," Mr Bhatia said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also extended support to the promotion of hallmarked jewellery by asking the commercial banks to insist on hallmarked jewellery as collateral against loans. Since hallmarked jewellery ensures the quality of gold, banks would find granting of loans against the security of such hallmarked jewellery safer and easier. According to Mr Bhatia, the advances of the Indian banking system against gold are currently insignificant in the urban centres; most of the loans against gold and gold jewellery are disbursed in the rural areas. This also supports the proposal of the BIS to expand the infrastructure network of hallmarking centres across the country and make hallmarking of gold jewellery mandatory.
Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page
|
Stories in this Section |
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | The Hindu Images | Home |
Copyright © 2005, The
Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu Business Line
|