The central government has changed the rules for buying and selling gold and jewellery. The Consumer Affairs Ministry said that after March 31, gold jewelery without hallmark unique identification cannot be sold. Under the new rule, from April 1, instead of 4 digits, only 6 digit alpha-numeric hallmarking will be valid. Without this, consumers will not be able to buy and sell gold.
At present, she said four digits as well as six-digit HUID are being used currently. She said the hallmarked gold jwellery items are being sold across the country, even in those districts where it is not mandatory yet because of consumers demand for quality product.
NOTE: Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal. In June 2021, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) made hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts mandatory. After that, the government decided to implement mandatory gold hallmarking in a phased manner. In the first phase, it was made mandatory in 256 districts and 32 more districts were added in the second stage, taking the total number to 288 districts. 51 more districts are being added.
What is HUID, Hallmark Unique Identification
- Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number is a six-digit alphanumeric code consisting of numbers and letters.
- It was first introduced on July 1, 2021.
- HUID will be given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking and it is unique for every piece of jewellery.
- The jewellery is stamped with the unique number manually at the Assaying & Hallmarking Centre (AHC).In the meeting, Goyal directed the BIS to augment the testing infrastructure in the country.
Prior to the introduction of the 6-digit alphanumeric HUID code, hallmarked Jewellery consisted of four marks – BIS Mark, purity in carat and fineness for gold, assay centre’s identification mark/number and jewelers identification mark/number. After HUID was introduced, the four marks got replaced by three marks BIS Mark, purity in carat and fineness for gold, six-digit alphanumeric code.