Sale of gold jewelery and gold artefacts will not be allowed in the country from April 1 without Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number. Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has given this important information.
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Sale of gold jewelery and gold artefacts will not be allowed in the country from April 1 without Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number. Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has given this important information. Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, said that in the interest of the customers, it has been decided that after March 31, 2023, the sale of gold jewelery without HUID will not be allowed.
What is this code?
HUID is a unique 6 digit alphanumeric code, which includes both numbers and letters. According to the ministry, HUID will be given for every jewelery at the time of hallmarking. And it is unique for every jewellery. The unique number is manually stamped on the jewelery at assaying and hallmarking centres.
Earlier, HUID was of four numbers. Currently, both HUIDs (4 digit and 6 digit) are used in the market. Khape said that we say that after March 31, only 6-digit alphanumeric codes will be allowed. He said that from June 23, 2021, 256 districts were covered under mandatory hallmarking. And from June 1, 2022, 32 more districts were included in the mandatory hallmarking. With this, the total number of districts with such rules has increased to 288.
What has been said in the new guidelines?
In addition, additional 51 new districts have been set up with AHCs/OSCs. Due to which the total number of districts has increased to 339. Khare said that during 2022-23, 10.56 crore pieces of gold jewelery have been hallmarked. He further said that the number of operative BIS registered jewelers has increased from 1,53,718 in 2022-23.
As per the guidelines of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the BIS hallmark consists of three symbols – the BIS logo, the purity or fineness grade and a six-digit alphanumeric code known as HUID. Khare also informed that BIS has decided to give 80 per cent exemption on certification or minimum marking fee for micro cell units.Earlier, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Piyush Goyal chaired a review meeting on the work of BIS. Was.
