Page 14 - Bullion World Issue 01 Volume 06 January_2026

Bullion World | Volume 6 | Issue 01 | January 2026

HUID

HALLMARKING

OF GOLD

JEWELLERY:

THE JOURNEY

AHEAD

Mr James Jose,
President- Hallmarking Federation of India

Mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery with a unique Hallmark Unique Identification
(HUID) number, introduced in July 2021, has quickly reshaped India’s jewellery
ecosystem. In just four and a half years, around 57 crore jewellery articles have been
hallmarked and recorded on the BIS portal, and every piece can be verified through
the “Verify HUID” dashboard on the BIS Care app. This end to end digital traceability,
linking each article to its provenance, is virtually unique in global hallmarking practice.

Expansion in Scale and Reach Structural Fault Lines in the Mandatory Regime
The hallmarking regime has expanded dramatically Rapid expansion has also exposed weaknesses. Under
along the value chain. The number of BIS registered the mandatory system, responsibility for hallmarking
jewellers has risen from about 25,000 at the start of has shifted from retail jewellers to the first point of sale-
the mandatory phase to nearly 1.9 lakh registered upstream manufacturers and vendors. Hallmarking
gold dealers and around 24,000 silver dealers today. that was earlier concentrated near retail markets
Assaying and hallmarking capacity has grown to is now heavily clustered in the ten major jewellery
roughly 1,600 BIS recognised centres operating across manufacturing hubs, which together handle nearly 70%
some 375 districts covered under the mandatory of all hallmarking business.
regime.
This migration has undermined the viability of centres
These centres now hallmark close to 12 crore pieces a in smaller cities and towns, leading to the closure of
year, up from around 3.5 crore earlier, corresponding around 200 assaying and hallmarking centres across
to an estimated 1,200 tonnes of jewellery annually. India. The growing distance between retail jewellers
Even though items below 2 grams are exempt, about and nearby hallmarking centres has created room
22% of all hallmarked pieces fall into this lightweight for vendors to choose any convenient hallmarking
category, driven purely by consumer demand, while facility, sometimes prioritising speed over rigour and
exempt categories such as studded ornaments, contributing to an erosion of quality standards.
kundan, jadau and polki remain largely outside the
mandatory net.

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