Indian Association of Hallmarking Centres, which represents around 350 hallmarking centres across India, has asked the government to immediately pass the proposed amendments to the BIS Act 1986 that is pending in Parliament, says a PTI report. The bill which was introduced in 2012 and tabled in the Lok Sabha in 2013, has proposed to make hallmarking mandatory.

President of the association Harshad Ajmera, secretary K Anand Kumar and other representatives including James Jose MD of Cochin Hallmark Co, Rajkumar Jain of Kesar Hallmarking Centre etc spoke to the media saying that the bill will ensure that proper hallmarking standards are followed across the country.

The association representatives told PTI that last year 2.6 crore pieces of jewellery were hallmarked across the country which is estimated to be about 500 tonnes of the yellow metal. “We have paid Rs 6-7 crore as royalty to BIS," Ajmera is reported to have said.

Anand Kumar told PTI that the number of hallmarking centres is adequate to meet the requirements of mandatory hallmarking, while Jain said that capacity utlisation is near 100% in bigger towns and cities, though in towns like Kanpur and Mysore, the figure could be between 30-40%.