at metals focus a precious metals consultancy that provides data to the world gold council wgc the market development organisation for the gold industrysince the hallmarking scheme has been voluntary so far many jewellers have been found to be misleading buyers for example 916 on the gold item denotes 22 carat purity but if there is no accompanying bis logo the gold may not really be 22 carat other jewellers are said to conveniently get only a part of their stock hallmarked and claim that all their gold is 100 hallmarkedsome jewellers even sell nonhallmarked jewellery by forging the bis logo says a gold industry expert not wanting to be namedmandatory hallmarkingto end adulteration of gold and ensure customers pay for exactly what they buy hallmarking of gold jewellery will no more be voluntary but mandatory from january 15 2021according to the consumer affairs food public distribution ministry jewellers will be given a years time to get their stock hallmarked and more assaying and hallmarking centres will be opened to speed up the processnoncompliance will invite a fine of rs 1 lakh that could go up to five times the items value along with a years jail term trade experts have welcomed the move but with riders compulsory hallmarking will bring the trust back in the gold industry benefiting consumers and traders says somasundaram pr managing director of wgc india according to a wgc survey in november 48 of the respondents said they did not invest in gold due to mistrustthe new regulation would mean that all 3lakhodd small and large jewellers in every nook and corner of india will have to compulsorily register with the bis and sell only hallmarked gold jewellery from january 15 2021but are the jewellers readyno doubt the new rule will propel the growth of the organised jewellery sector but bis certification centres are presently limited to cities and large towns the challenge will be to manage this aspect so that retailers in small towns can also shift to hallmarked jewellery says ts kalyanaraman chairman of kalyan jewellers a thrissurheadquartered jewellery chaincurrently hallmarking centres are present only in 234 of indias more than 700 districts there are no centres in arunachal pradesh meghalaya manipur mizoram sikkim lakshadweep andaman nicobar daman diu and dadar nagar haveli while tripura has just one such centre the first task of the government will be to open new centres in remote areas we are already working on this aspect in the next one year centres will come up in almost every district of the country consumer affairs food public distribution minister ram vilas paswan tells et magazinelooking for four marksunder the new norm for standardising purity of gold jewellery four marks will have to be present on every gold article that is sold a bis logo a threedigit number signifying purity along with carat the jewellers unique id mark and the sign of the centre that hallmarked the piece gold industry experts say that ensuring