The Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), which operates the gold and silver hallmarking scheme in India, defines hallmarking as the“accurate determination and official recording of the proportionate content of precious metal in precious metal articles.”
So, it is a “guarantee of purity or fineness” of precious metal articles, which started in 2000.
In India, at present two precious metals namely gold and silver have been brought under the purview of Hallmarking.
The BIS certified jewellers can get theirjewellery hallmarked from any of the BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centres (A&HC).
Earlier, it was optional for the jewellers and thus only 40% of gold jewellery was getting hallmarked.
Need of Gold Hallmarking:
India is the biggest consumer of gold.However, the level of hallmarked jewellery is very low in the country.
The mandatory hallmarking will protect the public against lower caratage (the fraction of pure gold) and ensure consumers do not get cheated while buying gold ornaments.
It will help to get the purity as marked on the ornaments.
It will bring in transparency and assure the consumers of quality.
It will weed out anomalies and corruption in the system of manufacturing of jewellery.