Gold Hallmarking Fee Hike 2026: What Jewellers Must Do Now (and How HUID Software Helps)

September 21, 2026

The Short Answer

The BIS has raised the gold hallmarking fee from ₹45 to ₹75 per article, and jewellers can manage the extra cost best by tracking hallmarking at the item level, batching consignments smartly and using jewellery software that links every HUID to cost, stock and billing.

The change came through the Bureau of Indian Standards (Hallmarking) Amendment Regulations, 2026, notified on 14 September and effective on publication. Silver stays at ₹35 per article. Your gold price didn’t change, but your compliance cost per piece did, and it arrives just ahead of the festive season, when volumes are highest. Lapaas Voice

Key Takeaways

The per-article gold hallmarking fee rose about 67%, from ₹45 to ₹75.
A minimum per-consignment charge applies, so sending very small batches gets expensive per piece.
The fee affects your certification cost, not the retail gold rate or making charges directly.
The cost impact is largest for jewellers handling many light, low-value pieces, a segment that is growing.
HUID should be treated as an inventory mechanic, not just a stamp. Software that tracks it properly turns a compliance burden into a controlled cost.
You have roughly six weeks before Dhanteras and Diwali in early November to tighten your process.

What Exactly Changed?

The gold hallmarking fee per article went from ₹45 to ₹75, while silver remains unchanged.

According to reporting on the amendment, the revised rates took effect on September 14, 2026, with jewellers submitting gold articles to recognised Assaying and Hallmarking Centres paying ₹75 per article, subject to a minimum charge per consignment. One report describes the ₹200 minimum as new, while another says the gold minimum consignment charge remains ₹200 and that silver keeps its ₹150 minimum. Since the sources differ on whether the minimum is new, confirm the exact schedule against the official Gazette notification or your Assaying and Hallmarking Centre. NewsX Lapaas Voice

Metal	Fee per article	Minimum per consignment
Gold	₹75 (was ₹45)	₹200
Silver	₹35 (unchanged)	₹150

Applicable taxes are charged on top, so check your centre’s invoice for the final amount.

Does This Raise the Price Customers Pay?

Not automatically. The fee is a certification cost paid by the jeweller, and each business decides whether to absorb it, show it separately or recover it through pricing.

The amendment changes the certification fee only. It does not set retail jewellery prices, gold value or making charges. That distinction matters for how you talk to customers. It also means the burden falls first on your margin. Lapaas Voice

The extra ₹30 per article looks small, but hallmarking scales with piece count, not piece value. A ₹10,000 ring and a ₹1,20,000 necklace each pay the same fee. That makes the hike proportionally heavier on light, low-ticket items.

The Cost Math: What ₹30 More Per Article Really Means

The increase adds ₹30 per article plus tax, but the consignment minimum can make small batches far more expensive per piece than the headline rate suggests.

Here are illustrative calculations, before taxes:

Articles in consignment	Old fee (₹45)	New fee (₹75)	Charged (with ₹200 minimum)	Effective cost per piece
1	₹45	₹75	₹200	₹200
2	₹90	₹150	₹200	₹100
3	₹135	₹225	₹225	₹75
50	₹2,250	₹3,750	₹3,750	₹75
200	₹9,000	₹15,000	₹15,000	₹75
1,000	₹45,000	₹75,000	₹75,000	₹75

These are my own worked examples for illustration. Verify against your centre’s actual billing.

Two lessons stand out.

Lesson 1: Batch size matters. Anything below three articles hits the minimum. Sending single pieces individually can cost you nearly triple the base rate per item.

Lesson 2: Volume compounds. A showroom hallmarking 1,000 articles a month now pays an extra ₹30,000 a month, or ₹3.6 lakh a year, before taxes. That is real money, and it disappears into general expenses unless you track it.

Why Lightweight Jewellery Makes This Hike Bite Harder

When gold prices are high, customers buy lighter pieces, which means more articles per rupee of sales and a bigger hallmarking cost share.

Market research notes that elevated gold prices are encouraging lighter pieces, and old-gold exchange is becoming more important. Another industry analysis points to a shift toward lightweight jewellery for daily wear among urban consumers, alongside a hallmark mandate that has lifted consumer confidence, with organised retailers achieving over 95% compliance. Global Risk Community Technavio

Think about what that does to your numbers. Suppose the average sale is ₹25,000 across two pieces instead of one heavy ₹25,000 piece. The hallmark cost doubles for the same revenue. If your fee per article goes from ₹45 to ₹75, the pressure on light-jewellery margins is noticeable.

This is why the smartest response isn’t only “raise prices.” It’s knowing your true hallmarking cost per item, per category and per sale, and that requires data.

HUID Is an Inventory Mechanic, Not Just a Stamp

Every hallmarked gold article carries a unique six-character alphanumeric HUID, and your business needs to capture, track and reconcile it, not just print it.

One jewellery software guide puts the shift bluntly: a HUID must be captured at intake, printed on the bill and tracked through returns, exchanges and karigar trips, and software that keeps HUID in a remarks column cannot reconcile the hallmark register. Ornexa

That reflects the reality of a modern jewellery counter. The HUID connects several parts of your business:

Purchase and receiving: hallmarked stock from suppliers arrives with HUIDs.
Tagging: in-house pieces get hallmarked, then tagged.
Billing: the HUID appears on the invoice.
Returns and exchanges: you need to trace which item came back.
Karigar work: pieces sent for repair or modification may need re-checking.
Audit: inspectors and your own reconciliation need clean, searchable records.

If HUIDs live in a notebook, an Excel column or a remarks field, every one of these steps becomes slow and error-prone.

Seven Places Jewellers Quietly Lose Money on Hallmarking

Most hallmarking losses aren’t the fee itself. They’re the process leaks around it. Here is where they typically happen.

1. Untracked hallmarking cost. If the centre’s fee isn’t linked to item cost, your margin reports overstate profit. With the fee up 67%, this gap widens.

2. Small, frequent consignments. Sending two or three pieces at a time triggers the minimum charge repeatedly. A batching schedule fixes this.

3. Rejected or failed articles. Pieces that fail hallmarking still consume time and possibly fees. Without tracking, you can’t see which karigar, batch or supplier causes failures.

4. HUID data entry errors. A mistyped six-character code creates mismatches at billing or audit time and can be painful to fix later.

5. Mixed-up returns. When a customer returns a piece, staff need to match its HUID quickly. Manual searching wastes time and risks errors.

6. Duplicate hallmarking. Without a clear status flag (sent, hallmarked, tagged), the same article can be sent twice, and you pay twice.

7. Dead time in the pipeline. Pieces waiting at the hallmarking centre are locked capital. If you can’t see what is out, for how long and which centre has it, you can’t plan festive stock.

Good software closes each of these leaks.

Old-Gold Exchange and Hallmarking: The Overlooked Link

Old-gold exchange is now a major share of jewellery transactions, and your ERP must connect exchanged metal, melting, new manufacture and fresh hallmarking into one traceable chain.

The World Gold Council estimated that old-gold exchange represented roughly 40% to 60% of transactions across retailers in Q1 2026. If that even approximately reflects your shop, the metal you take in today often becomes tomorrow’s new jewellery. Global Risk Community

That flow raises practical questions your system should answer:

How much exchanged gold is in your melt or refinery account?
Which new pieces were made from it, and when do they go for hallmarking?
What purity deduction was applied at exchange?
What was the hallmarking cost of the resulting pieces?

When these steps live in separate registers, you lose sight of true margin on exchange-driven sales. When they live in one system, you can see the full cycle: old gold in, karigar out, hallmark, tag, sale.

Handling rules for old jewellery and hallmarking can be nuanced, so confirm current BIS requirements for your specific case.

Festive Season Readiness: Your Six-Week Hallmarking Plan

Dhanteras and Diwali fall in early November, so the time to fix your hallmarking workflow is now, before demand peaks and centres get busy.

Here’s a practical timeline.

Week 1: Audit

Count how many articles you hallmarked in the last three months.
Calculate the new cost against the old.
Identify how many consignments were tiny (one or two pieces).

Week 2: Fix data

Clean your stock: make sure every gold item that needs a HUID has one recorded properly, in a dedicated field.
Correct mismatches between physical and system stock.

Week 3: Set a batching rhythm

Decide fixed dispatch days for the hallmarking centre (for example, twice a week) so consignments are always well above the minimum.
Reserve an urgent lane for genuine rush jobs.

Week 4: Update costing and pricing

Add the new hallmarking cost into your item costing.
Decide with your accountant whether to absorb, itemise or recover the cost.
Brief counter staff on how to explain it to customers.

Week 5: Train staff

Practise HUID scanning, entry and return lookup.
Rehearse the exchange workflow.

Week 6: Stress-test

Run a mock festival day: fast billing, exchange, returns and tag changes.
Fix the gaps before the crowds arrive.

How a Jewellery ERP Handles the Hallmarking Workflow

A hallmark-aware ERP moves each piece through clear statuses (manufactured, sent for hallmarking, hallmarked, tagged, sold) and attaches the HUID and the cost at the right moment.

Here is the ideal flow.

Step 1: Create the article. Record weight, purity, stone details and category, whether it’s bought in or made in-house.

Step 2: Group into a consignment. The system helps you build a batch, showing the count against the minimum charge so you avoid wasteful tiny shipments.

Step 3: Dispatch and track. Log which centre received the batch, when, and how many pieces. Statuses show what is “out” at any time.

Step 4: Receive and record HUIDs. As pieces return, scan or enter each HUID against the right item, with validation to catch typos.

Step 5: Handle rejections. Failed pieces are flagged with a reason and routed back to the karigar or supplier.

Step 6: Allocate cost. The hallmarking fee is spread across the articles in the batch and added to item cost.

Step 7: Tag and stock. Barcode tags carry the HUID reference, and stock updates automatically.

Step 8: Bill and trace. The HUID prints on the invoice, and returns or exchanges can be traced back to the exact article.

[Describe here how your product implements HUID capture, hallmark status tracking or reports.]

Features to Look For in HUID-Ready Jewellery Software

Look for software with a dedicated HUID field, hallmark status tracking, consignment management, cost allocation and searchable audit reports.

Use this checklist in your next demo:

Dedicated HUID field on every item, not a free-text remark
Barcode or scanner support for fast, accurate entry
Consignment/batch management with count and minimum-charge visibility
Hallmark status flags (pending, at centre, hallmarked, rejected)
Cost allocation of hallmark fees to item cost
Rejection tracking by karigar, supplier or batch
HUID on invoices and in return/exchange lookups
Old-gold exchange linked to melting, manufacture and hallmarking
Reports: hallmark register, pending-at-centre list, hallmark cost by category, and item history by HUID
Compliance updates: how quickly the vendor updates the system when rules or fee schedules change
Multi-branch support: central hallmarking with branch-wise allocation
Audit trail and role-based access: who edited or deleted a HUID record

A useful test: pick any single piece at random and ask the vendor to show its full life, from raw metal to hallmark to sale to return, on one screen.

Should You Absorb, Itemise or Recover the Fee?

There is no single right answer, but transparency and consistency protect customer trust. Your options generally look like this:

Absorb it. Best when margins allow and you want to avoid friction. Risk: cumulative margin erosion, especially on light items.

Itemise it. Show hallmarking as a separate line. It’s transparent, but some customers may object to seeing an extra charge.

Blend it into making charges or pricing. Simple for customers, but you must remain consistent and avoid misleading presentation.

Hybrid. Absorb on high-value pieces and recover on low-value ones.

Whichever you choose, check the tax and invoicing treatment with your chartered accountant. Software can then apply your rule consistently rather than leaving it to each salesperson’s judgement.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

The most common mistakes are treating hallmarking as a back-office chore, sending tiny batches, and storing HUIDs in unstructured fields.

Ignoring the minimum charge and dispatching pieces one by one.
Recording HUID in remarks or paper registers.
Not updating item cost after the fee change.
No status tracking, so nobody knows what is at the centre.
Leaving staff untrained on returns and exchanges.
Waiting until Diwali week to fix processes.
Assuming the fee equals customer price impact and missing the margin hit.

The Bigger Picture: Compliance as Competitive Advantage

Hallmarking has moved from a rule to be followed to a trust signal to be leveraged. With organised retailers showing very high compliance and consumers valuing transparency, being fast and accurate on HUID and traceability sets you apart.

Consider what a customer notices: an invoice with a clean HUID, a quick return lookup, a clear explanation of pricing. Those small moments build the trust that brings families back for weddings, gifting and festival purchases.

The fee hike is a small cost. The larger opportunity is to use the moment to modernise: cleaner data, better costing, tighter batches and faster service.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the new gold hallmarking fee in India?

The gold hallmarking fee is ₹75 per article, up from ₹45, plus applicable taxes and subject to a minimum per-consignment charge. The amendment took effect on 14 September 2026, according to recent reports. Confirm the details with the official notification or your hallmarking centre.

Has the silver hallmarking fee changed?

No. Reports indicate silver remains ₹35 per article, with a ₹150 minimum consignment charge.

Will the hallmarking fee increase gold jewellery prices?

Not directly. The fee changes certification cost only and doesn’t set retail prices, gold value or making charges. Whether jewellers pass it on depends on their pricing decisions.

What is HUID?

HUID stands for Hallmark Unique Identification, a unique six-character alphanumeric code assigned to each hallmarked article. It lets the item be traced and verified.

How can software help manage hallmarking costs?

Jewellery software can group articles into consignments, track hallmark status, record HUIDs, allocate the fee to item cost, flag rejections and generate hallmark registers. That gives you accurate margins and audit-ready records.

Why does the minimum consignment charge matter?

If you send very few articles at once, the minimum charge can make the per-piece cost much higher than the standard fee. Batching pieces avoids this.

Should small jewellers invest in HUID software?

If you hallmark regularly and handle billing, returns and exchanges, structured tracking saves time and reduces errors. Many cloud systems are modular, so you can begin with billing, stock and HUID and expand later.

Does old-gold exchange need to be tracked with hallmarking?

Yes, ideally. Exchanged gold is often melted and reused in new pieces that then need hallmarking. Tracking the full chain gives a true view of cost and margin.

Can I track hallmarking across multiple branches?

Good multi-branch ERPs let you centralise hallmarking, view pending consignments across locations and allocate cost by branch.

What should I do before Diwali?

Audit your hallmarking volume, clean your HUID data, set a batching schedule, update item costing and train your staff. Do this well before the festive rush.

Conclusion: Turn a Cost Increase into a Process Upgrade

The ₹75 hallmarking fee is a manageable cost, but only if you can see it, allocate it and control it. Jewellers who track HUIDs properly, batch consignments intelligently and understand true item-level margins will absorb the change with barely a ripple. Those relying on notebooks and memory will feel it in their profits, and in their stress during the festive rush.

The right jewellery software gives you that visibility from a single system: stock, HUID, hallmark status, cost, billing, exchange and audit records.

Want to be ready before Dhanteras? Book a free demo of JwelryERP.Store and see how HUID tracking, consignment management and GST-ready billing work together.