BIS Hallmark Registration for Jewellers — Mandatory Hallmarking, HUID, Documents and the Online Process

A BIS hallmark is the Government of India's guarantee of the purity of gold and silver. Under the BIS Act, 2016 and the BIS (Hallmarking) Regulations, 2018, the Bureau of Indian Standards runs the hallmarking scheme: jewellers register with BIS, and their articles are tested and stamped at BIS-recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centres. Hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts has been made mandatory in phases across the country since June 2021, and since 1 April 2023 gold jewellery may be sold only with a six-digit alphanumeric Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) — an identity number for each piece that records where it was hallmarked and lets the buyer verify it on the BIS Care app.

The registration is mandatory for anyone who sells jewellery to the end customer. It does not matter whether the business calls itself a manufacturer, a wholesaler or a retailer: if the piece reaches a consumer through you, you must be registered with BIS and the piece must carry the hallmark with HUID. Selling unhallmarked gold jewellery in a district where hallmarking is mandatory is an offence under the BIS Act, with penalties and the possibility of seizure.

Who must register

• •Retail jewellery showrooms and shops selling gold or silver jewellery to consumers
• •Manufacturers and wholesalers who also sell directly to consumers
• •Online sellers of jewellery to Indian consumers
• •Jewellers in districts newly brought under mandatory hallmarking, before the effective date

1. 1Step 1 — Log in to the BIS online portal (or the National Single Window System, where BIS registration is listed), search for the jeweller registration service and add it to your dashboard.
2. 2Step 2 — Fill the application: type of firm, business name and address, GST number, annual turnover slab, shop coordinates and authorised signatory.
3. 3Step 3 — Upload the scanned documents one by one; complete Aadhaar e-verification of the signatory (or upload the gazetted-officer-attested identity proof).
4. 4Step 4 — Pay the registration fee for your turnover slab and submit; the dashboard shows the application as processing.
5. 5Step 5 — Outcome: approval, with the certificate available for download; or an email listing corrections, which are made and resubmitted.
6. 6Step 6 — Hallmarking: register with a BIS-recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centre, send articles for assay, receive them stamped with the BIS mark, purity grade and HUID, and maintain the records BIS may inspect.

A proprietor opening a gold showroom has GST and a rent agreement but no proof of firm. We issue the CA certificate of the proprietorship, take the coordinates of the shop, complete Aadhaar verification of the proprietor and file in the lowest turnover slab. BIS asks for a clearer copy of the rent agreement; it is uploaded the same day and the registration is approved within a week. The showroom registers with the nearest assaying centre and its first lot of 22-carat pieces is returned with HUIDs before the opening.

• •Proprietorship applications without a proof-of-firm document — a CA certificate solves it.
• •Signatory's Aadhaar not linked to a mobile number, so e-verification fails; the alternative is a gazetted-officer-attested ID.
• •Turnover declared in the wrong slab; the fee and the record must match your accounts.
• •Coordinates or address that do not match the premises proof.
• •Selling stock without HUID after the mandatory date — the registration does not excuse unhallmarked sales.