Kerala: Most Reliable Gold Market With Hallmarking Centres In All Districts

Kerala becomes a substantially reliable gold market than other states in India after inaugurating a new hallmarking centre in Idukki district this month. According to the BIS website, there are currently 471 hallmarking centres in south India, including Goa. Tamil Nadu tops the list with 174 centres, but two to three districts of the state are yet to build hallmarking centres. While Kerala with 103 centres in it's 14 districts becomes the first state to have gold hallmarking centres in all districts. Karnataka and Telangana follows the list with 82 and 40 respectively.

The Bureau of International Standards (BIS) made gold hallmarking compulsory for market players to prevent fraud and protect consumers. The Reserve Bank of India's Standing Committee on Gold and Precious Metal introduced BIS in 2000 to regulate the gold standards and improve Indian export competitiveness of the yellow metal. Hallmarks are official guarantee for purity of the precious metal which have price variations based on the gold content in the making. Raw gold is too delicate for manufacturing articles and ornaments, hence traditionally its is altered with other metals to improve it's durability. The gold content in the article determines its carats ranging from 14-carats containing 58.3%, 16-carats containing 75%, 22-carat containing 91.7% and lastly 24-carat with 99.99% gold purity.

Contrary to the four-digit hallmarking earlier, a six-digit alphanumeric HUID (Hallmark Unique Identification) number is provided to all gold products of registered merchants. There are more than 1.8 lakh registered jewellers across India. This HUID number helps individual customers to avail themselves of the exact gold content of their purchases through the online tracking facility. It was difficult earlier, but now proper steps are taken to hallmark products even below 2 grams. A Business Standard report in September confirms that more than 260 million gold articles have been hallmarked so far.

Two phases of mandatory hallmarking had came into affect by June 2022 and this year in September, the third phase of hallmarking added more 55 new districts, making a total of 343 districts in India. As per the BIS hallmarking process, there are three important steps involved for determining the purity of Gold. The first step involves sample testing to ensure products align with regulatory standards of BIS. The second step is randomly selecting gold items among 50 gold products for preliminary test and then authentic assay tests are conducted to define the purity, fineness and value of the gold. The final step involves individual items checked and hallmarked through laser or press with a Unique Identification Number to each submitted product.

World Gold Council report expresses that wedding seasons in India fire up the jewellery market. Almost half of the gold ornaments sold in India are under bridal sections with Kerala holding highest demand in terms of gold weight consumption. On an average, during wedding season, a Kerala bride wears almost 320 grams of gold on her wedding day. Approximately 650 tones of gold is purchased in India, out of which Kerala alone demands about 250 tonnes a year or generates more than 1 lakh crore in annual sales. Today the prices for 10 grams of 18-carat gold in Kerala is Rs. 46,964/-, for 22-carat gold is around Rs. 57,400/-, and 24-carat gold costs Rs. 62,620/-.