The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti recently informed the Lok Sabha that the number of gold hallmarking laboratories operational in the country as of date is 1374.

Hallmarking had been made mandatory from 23rd June 2021 in 256 districts of the country which had at least one recognized Assaying & Hallmarking Centre (AHC).

Further, effective from 1st June 2022, the ambit of mandatory hallmarking was extended to 32 more districts, making the mandatory hallmarking regime applicable in 288 districts having at least one recognised AHC. Thus, the infrastructure is sufficient to cater to the demands of the districts wherein Hallmarking has become mandatory.

At present, 1374 AHCs recognised by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), spread across 335 districts are under operation. The BIS-registered jewellers can send their jewellery to any one of these centres. These AHCs have hallmarked more than 17 crore pieces of gold jewellery in the span of the last 1.5 years since the implementation of mandatory hallmarking.