The central government has made major changes in the rules related to the sale and purchase of gold and its jewellery. According to the change, from April 1, 2024, gold and its jewelery should mandatorily have Hallmarked Unique Identification Number (HUID).
If this does not happen then that gold cannot be sold in the market. Use of Hallmark till June 16, 2021 at seller’s discretion. However, it gradually started being made mandatory. So far it has been compulsorily implemented in 288 districts. Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs has told that currently 4 and 6 digit hall marks are used.
The ministry says that now only 6 digit hallmark will be valid. According to the government, people were getting confused due to 4 and 6 digits i.e. 2 different types of hallmarks. Another one done in Hallmark’s way of writing. Earlier there was digit hallmarking, which has been changed to alphanumeric (consisting of numbers and letters). Now 4 digit hallmarking will be completely stopped.
What is HUID?
Every jewelery has its own unique identity. With the help of this number, the customer will get all the information related to gold and its jewellery. This will reduce the possibility of fraud to a great extent. Jewelers will also have to put this information on the BIS portal. Each piece of jewelery will be manually stamped with a unique number. Let us tell you that shopkeepers will not be able to sell gold or jewelry without the new hallmark, but customers can sell old hallmarked jewelry to the jeweler even after April 1.
Union Minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting
Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal held a meeting with the officials of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on Friday. In the meeting, instructions were given to BIS to strengthen the infrastructure for testing. BIS was instructed to increase product testing and market surveillance. To promote quality at a very small scale, it has also been decided that BIS will give up to 80 per cent discount on certification or minimum marking fee.
