Hallmarking of gold jewellery is gaining momentum with the volume of jewellery sold under the hallmarking scheme of Bureau of Indian Standards shooting up by almost five times in 2002-2003 compared with the previous financial year.
Sales under the hallmarking scheme jumped from 340 kilogram in 2001-2002 to 1.6 tonnes of gold last fiscal. The volume was expected to double in the current financial year to almost 3 tonnes.
Dr Shrikant L Palkar, director of BIS, said, "BIS aims to issue of about 72-77 new licences this year under the scheme. There is also plan to standardise rates for hallmarking throughout the country which is likely to rationalise the hallmarking cost structure."
There are about 600 hallmarked jewellers in the country with western region accounting for about 211 as at the end of March 2003. In the western region, Mumbai has 125 jewellers, Ahmedabad has 70, Rajkot has 12 jewellers and Pune has 4 holding liceneses for hallmarked jewellery.
Five Mumbai-based jewellers accounted for bulk of hallmarked jewellery in 2002-03.
Jayantilal M. Shrimankar hallmarked 265 kilogram of jewellery, Sunil Jewellers accounted for 233 kg jewellery, Rasiklal Sankalchand Jewellers for 146 kg, Rishabh Jewellers hallmarked 120 kg and Mulchand R. Shah Jewellers for 117 kg.
One jeweller hallmarked jewellery in the 50-100 kg category, while 32 jewellers hallmarked between 10-50 kg, 11 jewellers between 5-10 kg, another 27 jewellers between 1-5 kg and 12 jewellers accounted for less than 1 kg.
BIS has been issuing roughly 4-5 licences per month in Mumbai.
It was aiming to issue 5-7 licenses per month this fiscal. Demand for licences for hallmarked jewellery outside Mumbai was low owing to lack of approved hallmarking centres close to jewellers.
Presence of a hallmarking facility in the vicinity reduced the risk of transporting jewellery between producer and the certifying facility.
"Consumers in the interiors are also not aware about hallmarked jewellery and its benefits. The weak consumer awareness proves to be deterrent to jewellers in opting for hallmarking as it adds a cost of about Rs 2-3 per gram," Palkar explained.
However, if the homogenisation of hallmarking rates is made effective across the country, the cost was likely to come down.
