With gold prices surging and purchases continuing to form a major component of household savings, the Centre has expanded mandatory gold hallmarking to 380 districts, aiming to strengthen consumer protection and tighten quality oversight in India’s gold jewellery market.
The move comes through the Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery and Gold Artefacts (Amendment) Order, 2026, which replaces the district schedule under the 2020 order.
Mandatory hallmarking was introduced in phases in 2021, initially covering 256 districts, largely major jewellery trade centres. The latest expansion reflects the government’s push to bring smaller and emerging regional markets under the Bureau of Indian Standards certification system.
India currently has around 800 districts. Since the rollout began in 2021, more than 580 million gold items have been hallmarked under the regime, averaging over 10 million pieces a month.
The expanded coverage includes several tier-2 and tier-3 districts across major gold-consuming states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal.
Consumer protection remains the central objective of the policy. BIS hallmarking certifies the purity of gold through accredited assay and hallmarking centres and allows buyers to verify the metal’s purity through unique identification marks.
Ashish Kumar Singh, president of the Citizen Forum, a civil rights group based in Bihar, said the expansion signals a shift in regulatory focus towards smaller markets.
“The move indicates a gradual shift in policy focus from large metropolitan jewellery markets to smaller regional centres where gold trade volumes have grown significantly in recent years,” Singh said.
Ashim Sanyal, chief executive officer of Consumer Voice, a consumer advocacy organisation, said mandatory hallmarking has become more important as gold prices climb.
“Mandatory hallmarking plays a crucial role in protecting consumers, especially at a time when gold prices are rising sharply,” Sanyal said. “It ensures buyers receive the purity they pay for and helps build trust in jewellery purchases, particularly in smaller markets where independent verification of gold quality has traditionally been limited.”
India remains one of the world’s largest gold consumers. Domestic demand fell 11 percent to 710.9 tonnes in 2025 from 802.8 tonnes in 2024. However, the value of demand rose 30 percent to ₹7.51 trillion due to record-high prices.
Investment demand for gold has also risen, signalling a structural shift in the market where rising prices — rather than volume growth — are increasingly driving the value of trade.
Despite the expansion, roughly 400 districts remain outside the mandatory hallmarking framework, indicating that the rollout is likely to continue in phases as testing infrastructure expands and more markets are brought under the certification system.