The All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council (GJC) has asked the government to extend the deadline for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery. The three lakh members of the council have asked the government to extend the deadline from June 1, 2021 to June 1, 2022 due to the second wave of COVID-19, reported The Economic Times.

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The government had announced in November 2019 that the mandatory hallmarking would come into effect from 1 January 2021. However, that deadline was extended by 4 months seeing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many districts in India do not have assaying and hallmarking (A&H) centres of the Bureau of Indian Standards, the GJC said in a statement, as per the report, highlighting recent data. Out of 733 districts, only 245 districts have such centres where jewellers can get their gold jewellery hallmarked, said the GJC, as mentioned in the report.

Most of these centres are located and concentrated near urban areas, leaving many areas of the country without any easy access to get jewellery hallmarked, added the Council.

It requested the government to ensure that at least one A&H centre is present in every district across the country. The council has also urged the government to consider the practical difficulties of getting jewellery hallmarked without the presence of nearby A&H centres, the report said.

Transporting gold over large distances to the nearest hallmarking centre can create logistical problems and such inter-state travel during the worst wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may prove fatal, the statement added.