- M D Varghese
Story Dated: Saturday, March 1, 2014 12:6 hrs IST
Kochi: A project to provide a unique identification number (UIN), like Aadhaar, for gold jewellery will be implemented soon. The plastic guarantee card will have the jewellery’s weight, purity and the producer’s name on it.
As per a decision by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), when gold jewellery weighing more than 10 grams is sold, a hallmarked guarantee card having the size of a credit card with the picture of the jewellery should also be provided.
The BIS has decided to procure from an outside agency the software and hardware to ingrain the nine digit UIN and the QR code that provides details on the card. Customers who buy the ornaments should pay an additional Rs 100 for the card. The BIS is of the view that the quality check of the hallmarking centre can also be achieved by this.
All information related to the quality of jewellery reaching such centres have to be logged in the central computer network of BIS from there itself. After four hours needed for hallmarking, the nine digit number and the QR code are given to print the guarantee card, which indicates the BIS approval. This will be laser marked in the ornaments. The printing of the guarantee card done at the hallmarking centre and the billing is done via the BIS computer network. Hallmarking licence would be made mandatory to rope in jewellery shops in small towns in this project. For towns with a population of three to ten lakh, the fee would be Rs 5,000.
The move is expected to check the complaints related to the ornaments purchased without bills. Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres vice-president James Jose said the consumers can log on to the BIS website and get all details related to the ornaments with the guarantee card number, including the place where it was manufactured and hallmarked, the carat to determine the purity, the name of the jewellery sold, its weight and picture. This will enable them to determine if the hallmarking was done in an approved centre.
The quality can be ensured with the card while purchasing, selling and pledging gold to avail loans. Like currency notes, crores of combination numbers for UIN can be made available to ornaments also. Eighty per cent of the ornaments sold in south India are hallmarked. The corresponding figure for western India is 50 per cent, northern India is 15-20 per cent and 30 per cent in eastern states.