Gold jewellery hallmark made compulsory/news05012012

The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to make hallmarking of gold jewellery compulsory. For this, a Bill will have to be passed by Parliament to change provisions in the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act, 1986.

The proposed government Bill, said officials, will also empower the government to bring a compulsory certification regime for any article or process it considers necessary from the point of view of health, safety, the environment and prevention of deceptive practices.

Approval was also given to a related proposal of the consumer affairs ministry to introduce registration of relevant standards as an alternative mechanism to the compulsory certification regime, to facilitate growth of sunrise sectors like information technology and biotechnology, and to protect consumers from spurious and substandard imports. Also okayed were strengthening of the penalty clauses in the BIS Act.

At present, a purity certificate for gold (from the BIS) is optional. Under that 1986 law, BIS-supervised hallmarking is mandatory for 77 items. Among these are cement, mineral water and milk products.

Jewellery forms 80% of all gold sales in India, largest global consumer of the metal. India’s gold demand in 2011 was estimated at 960 tonnes by the World Gold Council. Being duped on gold quality in jewellery is an old problem. A buyer, for instance, is told he has bought 22-carat gold and discovers it is only 18-carat when he goes to exchange or sell it.

The Cabinet also sanctioned Rs 19,000 crore for the Udhampur-Baramulla rail project, announced 17 years ago to connect the Kashmir valley with the Jammu region. The funds will be for the Katra-Qazikund stretch. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had dedicated the first phase of the project between Jammu and Udhampur (53 km) in April 2005, while the 119-km Qazigund-Srinagar- Baramulla stretch was commissioned in 2009.

Also approved was a proposal for providing insurance cover and pension benefits to Indian workers abroad.
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