With the government having notified the provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 from October 12, gold and hallmarking centre associations have said it would be a matter of time before hallmarking of gold jewellery becomes compulsory. BIS would soon include mandatory hallmarking of jewellery to its list, says news reports.

"The new law will further help ease of doing business in the country," Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in a statement.

Currently, hallmarking of jewellery is reportedly voluntary. Therefore, at present, the consumer might not necessarily know that he is getting ornaments of purity he has paid for. Once hallmarking is made compulsory, all jewellers will have to register with BIS and sell only hallmarked ornaments.

The provisions of the new BIS Act kicking in from Oct 12 have penal provisions, like fines and even imprisonment for flouting rules.

According to a news daily, India has 500 HMCs across the country. In fiscal year 2017, the HMCs hallmarked 3.1 crore pieces of jewellery, translating to 465 tonnes. On each piece the HMC charges Rs. 35, of which 10 per cent is paid to government as royalty. Based on these figures HMCs got Rs. 108.5 crore for hallmarked jewellery in the previous fiscal year. Of this Rs. 10.8 crore, ex tax, was royalty for government.