New Delhi: From April 1, the sale of gold jewellery and gold artefacts without a six-digit alphanumeric HUID — unique identifying number will not be allowed, the government announced on Friday, March 3.

A gathering to assess the activities of the Bureau of Indian Standards was presided over by Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday (BIS).

It has been agreed that the BIS will offer an 80% discount on the certification/minimum marking charge for all product certification programmes in order to encourage quality culture in micro scale entities.

Gold is certified as pure by the hallmarking process. Up until June 16, 2021, it was purely optional.

Following that, the government made the decision to introduce obligatory gold hallmarking gradually. It was made required in 256 districts in the first stage, and 32 more districts were added in the second step, bringing the total to 288 districts. There will be 51 more areas introduced.

According to a government announcement, only gold jewellery sales with HUIDs will be allowed effective from April 1, 2023.

According to Nidhi Khare, assistant secretary in charge of consumer affairs, "it has been determined that after March 31st, sale of gold jewellery and gold artefacts hallmarked without HUID will not be allowed in the interest of consumers." She stated that both the four and six-digit HUIDs are presently in use.

She claimed that due to customer demand for high-quality goods, hallmarked gold jewellery is sold all over the nation, even in the areas where it is not yet required.

An alphanumeric identifier with six digits and both numbers and characters is called a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number. Every item of jewellery will receive a HUID at the moment of hallmarking, and each one is different.

The Assaying & Hallmarking Center physically stamps the jewellery with the distinctive number (AHC).

Goyal gave the BIS instructions to improve the nation's testing facilities during the discussion. According to the importance of the components used for customer safety, the BIS was instructed to raise the frequency of product testing and market surveillance.

Moreover, BIS need to make lab inspections more frequent.

To guarantee product safety, BIS has been instructed to step up market monitoring for various goods like pressure cookers, helmets, and other consumer goods. For the upcoming period, BIS has suggested Quality Control Orders (QCO) for 663 goods.

According to the statement, 462 goods are currently protected by QCOs.

The statement read, "BIS is giving an 80% concession on the certification/minimum marking charge across different product certification programmes of BIS in an attempt to encourage quality culture in micro scale units.

Additionally, a further 10% discount will continue to be given to northeastern properties.

The greatest quality and safety standards must be met by all goods sold in India, according to Goyal.

According to him, these actions will encourage micro scale units, improve testing facilities, and foster a culture of quality awareness among people.

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