Mandatory hallmarking leaves gold merchants in the lurch

Allotting HUIDs To Each Piece Of Jewellery Time-Consuming, Say Traders

- Mungara Sunil

Next time you go to a jewellery shop and find fewer designs to choose from, don’t fret, as confusion over a new rule of allotting a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number to every piece of jewel has resulting in lakhs of ornaments piling up for scrutiny and hallmarking in inspection centres.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has set up only 35 assaying and hallmarking centres (AHCs) in seven out of 33 districts in Telangana, bringing more misery to gold and silver merchants. Every day, AHCs are receiving thousands of gold jewellery pieces and allotting HUID to every piece is becoming time-consuming, traders say as the rules say the process has to be completed in 48 hours.

“Hyderabad jewellers have some infrastructure for the hallmarking process, but in several districts of Telangana, gold merchants have to travel at least 300 kilometres to get BIS hallmarking,” added Murali Krishna, who is member of a task force formed to look into the issue. In June, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) brought this new rule in place, but gold jewellery merchants have urged the central government to modify the system.