STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Only 34 per cent of jewellery shops in Assam have so far shifted to hallmarking and register themselves with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) even as such rule will be mandatory from Wednesday across the country. The move to enforce mandatory nationwide gold hallmarking was first announced by the Centre in November 2019. Towards this end, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had issued 'Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts Order, 2020'.
The original deadline of January 15, 2021, had to be extended twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the new rules, if a piece of jewellery purchase or an artefact made of 14-, 18- or 22-carat gold is sold without the BIS hallmark, the jeweller could be penalized five times the cost of the object or imprisoned for up to one year.
The Head of Guwahati Branch Office of BIS Sabyasachi Dhar told The Sentinel that out of 2052 jewellery shops in Assam only 698 have so far shifted to hallmarking and registered themselves with the BIS. He said 50 BIS hallmark registered shops are situated in Kamrup Metropolitan district, 155 in Kamrup, 98 in Cachar, 37 in Jorhat, 33 in Kokrajhar, 23 in Karimganj, 41 in Barpeta and 24 in Bongaigaon.
The number of BIS hallmark registered shops in Majuli, West Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao districts is zero. In other parts of the North East, 57 such shops are in Tripura, 2 in Arunachal Pradesh, 5 in Meghalaya, 1 in Manipur and 4 in Nagaland.
Dhar said mandatory hallmarking would protect the public against lower caratage and ensure consumers don't get cheated while buying gold ornaments and got the purity as marked on the ornaments. He said legal actions will be initiated against those assam shops selling gold without adhering to BIS hallmarking rules.
Assam has at present five assaying and hallmarking centres which check the genuine and purity of gold. While three such centres are in Kamrup Metro, one centre each is situated in Barpeta and Silchar. Five more such centres will be set up in Tinsukia, Nagaon, Bongaigaon and Jorhat districts.
Assam unit Indian Bullion and Jewellers' Association president Pradip Sarkar has welcomed the Centre's new move and said it would bring more transparency in trading gold. He said his association has already written to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs to extend the deadline further to enable jewellery shops to shift to hallmarking and register themselves with the BIS given the Covid pandemic.