The Hindu Business Line : Gold hallmarking to be made mandatory from Jan 2008

NEW DELHI: Gold purchasing will soon be more comfortable experience without the nagging doubt about its purity, as the Government is set to make it mandatory from January 2008 to emboss all gold sold in the country with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) h allmarking.

Hallmarking is the accurate determination and official recording of the proportionate content of gold in the precious metal.

Hallmarks are thus official marks used in many countries as a guarantee of purity or fineness of gold jewellery.

In the first phase the yellow metal sold in four metros - Delhi Mumbai Kolkata and Chennai would compulsorily have hallmarking, assuring the purity, while the rest of the country would have to implement the norms in the next few months.

"We are going to make hallmarking mandatory in four metros from January 1, 2008," a top official in the Department of Consumer Affairs said.

India consumes on an average 800 tonnes of gold each year. Given that the per cent of impurity in the yellow metal is 11-39 per cent, it translates to short charging from the customer to the tune of Rs 7,500 crore, he added.

Taking cognisance of these aspects the RBI Standing Committee on Gold and Precious Metals opined that introduction of a hallmarking system would not only protect the public from fraud, but also assist exports of jewellery.

However, it also acknowledged that compulsory certification of gold would not be executable thoroughly because of the massive structure of the trade in the country, both in the organised and unorganised sectors. - PTI

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