'Govt should enforce gold hallmarking license'

NEW DELHI: With only 4,000 out of the 10 lakh jewellers in India opting for a BIS hallmarking license, industry chamber Assocham on Friday asked the government to mandate BIS to ensure that pure gold jewellery is sold throughout the country.

The chamber, in its research paper to be submitted to the government, found that a majority of gold jewellers in the country have ignored BIS' campaign for getting their jewellery hallmarked in the last six years and continue to dupe customers.

Though BIS has launched various public interest campaigns over the past few years, it could only set up 53 hallmarking centres, majority of which are in south India, Assocham said in a statement.

The northern region has only 10 centres spread primarily in Delhi, parts of Rasjasthan, Haryana and Punjab while states like Uttarkhand and Jammu and Kashmir have no such hallmarking centres.

Assocham President Venugopal Dhoot said these centres can be raised to about 150 especially in Tier II and Tier III cities where cases of impure gold being sold are on the rise.

Nearly 80 per cent of the gold samples checked by the chamber during last year were found to be impure with a majority of such cases being spotted in small towns and cities.

The chamber said private players should also come forward to set up advanced jewellery training centres in small cities to train artisans in this regard.