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Tuesday, 17th October 2006 (5225 views)

The Indian government has decided to make gold jewellery hallmarking compulsory, as long as assaying centres are already present.

Once in place, the hallmarking system will make stringent quality checks to check that the purity of gold is maintained.

Some jewellers in India would prefer to see a process of self-certification but this was dismissed by authorities who deemed Indian markets as "not mature enough" for this approach.

Labanyendu Mansingh, secretary for the ministry of consumer affairs, said: " The moment we have credible market and we are a member of Vienna Gold Convention there is great potential for the global share of exports to come here."

It is believed that this credibility will be earned through the hallmarking scheme which will be mandatory from January 2008.

Currently, the Bureau of Indian Standards is in charge of granting hallmarks for gold to traders who opt for this status voluntarily.

Mr Mansingh told journalists that India accounts for 1.5 per cent of the world's gold jewellery exports.

 

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