The government's move to make hallmarking for gold mandatory from January 1, 2008 has got into bottlenecks thanks to lukewarm response from jewelers across the country.

Lack of security provisions and inadequate infrastructure are other reasons that could put hallmarking to indefinite postponement.

According to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the apex government agency that issues the hallmark certifying the purity of gold, only around 400 tonne of the yellow metal have so far been assayed since it launched voluntary hallmarking in 2000.

What is hallmarking of gold?

But the annual consumption was about 3,900 tonne.

The BIS Hallmarking Scheme has been aligned with International criteria on hallmarking (Vienna Convention 1972). As per this scheme, licence is granted to the jewellers by BIS under Product Certification Scheme. The BIS certified jewellers can get their jewellery hallmarked from any of the BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centre.

Hallmark consists of five components i.e. BIS Mark, the Fineness number (corresponding to given caratage), Assaying and Hallmarking Centre's Mark, Jeweller's Mark and year of Makring denoted by a code letter and decided by BIS (e.g. code letter 'A' was approved by BIS for year 2000, 'B' being used for the year 2001 and 'C' for 2002). The marking is done either using punches or laser marking machine.

The BIS hallmark, a mark of conformity widely accepted by the consumer, bestows the additional confidence to the consumer on the purity of gold jewellery.

But BIS officials said hallmarking the entire gold jewellery across India is a hige task.

"The jewellers have to be ready by that time January a, 2008 if the hallmarking has to be compulsorily implemented," P Sengupta, deputy director general of the BIS said.

There are around 3 lakh registered jewellers in the country. Out of this, only less than 4,000 have got the BIS certifications so far.

Traders say it is imposiible to check the non-hallmarked jewellery within this short span of time. "There are inadequate number of testing centres. We are not sure how secure are these testing centres," a leading jeweler in Ahmedabad told Commodity Online.

At present, there are only 50 licenced testing centres in various cities across India.

As per this scheme the jewellery retailer/manufacturer desirous of obtaining a licence apply to BIS for use of Standard Mark (Hallmark) on their jewellery. After registration, BIS officials conduct a preliminary inspection for verification of premises retailing/manufacturing, testing facilities and competence of testing personnel.

A sample is drawn from the jewellers retail/manufacturing premises for independent testing. Based on the satisfactory preliminary inspection report and test report of the sample drawn during inspection, licence is granted to the jeweller.

BIS officials say the government will have to now further postpone the date for complete hallmarking of gold jewellery in India because of the paucity of testing centres.