The Centre on Friday allowed those jewellers to sell their old stock of gold jewellery or gold artefacts with old ‘four marks hallmarking’ till June 30, 2023, which they had declared prior to July 1, 2021—the date on which the 6-digit hallmarking ID (HUID) was introduced in the country.
The Department of Consumer Affairs issued an order to this effect on Friday. The order called the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Second Amendment) Order, 2023, is signed by Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs.
The new proviso states, “Provided that if any person, had already given a declaration as required by the Bureau under sub-section (4) of section 18 of the Bureau of Indian Standards, Act, 2016 (11 of 2016) declaring his old stock of Gold jewellery or gold artefacts with old hallmarking as existed prior to 1st July 2021, such person shall be permitted to sell or display or offer to sell such declared stock of old Gold jewellery or gold artefacts up to the 30th June 2023.”
According to a source at the Department of Consumer Affairs, as on July 1, 2021 only 43,153 jewellers were registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). “Therefore, practically only 43,153 jewellers may have the old stock of four marks hallmarked jewellery. BIS sought stock declaration from these jewellers at the time of implementation of HUID. However, only 16,243 jewellers had declared their stock,” as per the source. Therefore, the latest move will benefit about 16,000 jewellers across the country, the source said.
Earlier this month, the Department of Consumer Affairs had said that the sale of gold jewellery and gold artefacts without the 6-digit HUID number shall not be permitted in the country from April 1, 2023.