BIS holds awareness drive on hallmark jewellery purchase

Anantapur: Consumer Councils in the country are engaged in a survey on exactly how many gold merchants in the country are selling hallmarked gold and silver jewellery in the context of the growing demand for hallmarking of all gold and silver jewellery ornaments mandatory by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

Highlights:

• Only 10 out of the 150 gold shops in the city are selling BIS hallmarked ornaments
• Recently, BIS hallmarking centre opened in Anantapur

Kurnool and Anantapur comes under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) of the Telangana State. Recently, the BIS has opened a hallmarking centre in the city so that gold showroom owners can come forward for securing BIS hallmarking, which certifies to the metallic purity. There are only 10 shops which are selling BIS hallmarked ornaments out of the 150 gold shops in the city.

The BIS is creating awareness among people on purchasing only BIS hallmarked gold throughout the country and is asking gold and silver merchants to voluntarily get their jewellery certified by BIS and get hallmarking to testify to the metal's purity.

Thousands of customers, who purchase gold and silver ornaments from shops which has no BIS licenses are duped by the gold merchants with regard to the purity of the metals gold and silver. The state Consumers Coordination Council of Telangana has embarked on a mission of surveying on how many gold shops are exactly selling hallmarked jewellery.

In Anantapur, only 10 out of 150 shops are selling hallmarked gold. This is indicative of the general trend in the state and in the country. The Telangana State Consumers Coordination Council president Sambaraju Chakrapani, who was here recently to participate in the inauguration of the BIS hallmarking centre in the city told The Hans India that so far the BIS has not made it mandatory to get BIS certification for their gold ornaments. Awareness is being created for a voluntary certification.

There is a growing demand in the country to make all gold sold in the country hallmarked. However, a bill has been introduced by the NDA government in Parliament which is yet to pass it and secure President of India's nod. Once that happened all gold and silver sales will be brought under the ambit of hallmark law.

Actually, Chakrapani says that all consumers should insist on purchasing only hallmarked gold and if that happened all merchants would fall in line without the backing of the law. He said that the BIS has set up its centre in the city to enable consumers to use its services.

Anyone, who purchases gold ornaments from a local shop can get their ornaments tested for its purity. This will not only expose the gold shops but will have a fear of exposure of their ornament quality. The BIS centre will function as a policeman. Anyone can walk in for a gold purity test. The BIS will fix jurisdiction of shops that will come under the centres.

Anantapur Jewellers Association president Mehaboob Basha told The Hans India that he welcomed the hallmarking centre set up by BIS in the city. He said that already there is awareness among the customers on hallmark gold and people from even rural areas are insisting on hallmarking.

The advent of corporate gold shops and their selling only hallmarked gold ornaments motivated even small gold shops to sell BIS certified ornaments. About Rs 200 crore of gold ornaments business is on in the city alone every year.

By Ravi P Benjamin