BIS HUID Hallmarking — What Every Indian Jeweller Must Know in 2026

What is a BIS HUID?

HUID stands for Hallmark Unique IDentification. It's a 6-character alphanumeric code (letters + digits) laser-etched on every hallmarked piece of gold jewellery. The first few characters identify the assaying centre; the rest are a unique sequence.

Alongside the HUID, three more marks appear on every hallmarked piece:

• The BIS logo (the triangle).
• The purity grade — 916 (22K), 750 (18K), 583 (14K), etc.
• The jeweller's identification mark (your shop's BIS-registered mark).

Together these four marks tell a customer: this piece is hallmarked, this is its purity, this is who registered it, and this is its unique tracking ID.

When the rules kicked in

Hallmarking on jewellery has been around since 2000 but was voluntary until 2021. The timeline:

• June 2021 — Hallmarking made mandatory in 256 districts.
• April 2022 — Expanded to 288 districts.
• July 2022 — HUID introduced as the unique identifier (replacing the older 4-mark system).
• April 2023 — HUID mandatory across India. Only HUID-marked gold can be sold; non-HUID stock can be cleared only via job work / melt.
• November 2023 onwards — Enforcement tightened. BIS started running shop inspections and seizing non-compliant stock.

What's covered, what isn't

Covered (mandatory HUID)

• All gold jewellery in 14K, 18K, 20K, 22K, 23K, 24K — including rings, chains, bangles, mangalsutras, earrings, bracelets.
• Gold coins (if branded / sold as jewellery; investment coins from MMTC etc. follow separate rules).

Exempted

• Jewellery weighing less than 2 grams per piece (toe rings, nose pins, etc.).
• Silver jewellery — hallmarking remains voluntary for silver.
• Watches, fountain pens, and special-status gold objects defined under BIS rules.
• Goods for export and items returning for repair (with documentation).

The compliant workflow

For a typical retail shop:

1. Source only HUID-hallmarked pieces. Whether you make in-house and send to an assaying centre, or buy from a wholesaler, every inward piece should arrive with its HUID etched.
2. Capture HUID at purchase entry. When you record the piece in your inventory system, save the 6-character HUID along with weight, cost, purity, and supplier reference.
3. Print HUID on the invoice line. When the piece sells, the HUID must appear on the invoice line — both for the customer's reference and for audit traceability.
4. Cross-check before delivery. The HUID on the piece must match the HUID on the invoice. (Two-line clerical fix: software should reject mismatches.)
5. Maintain inward/outward register — every piece's HUID, date in, date out, supplier, customer. This is what BIS asks for during inspection.

How customers verify HUID

BIS runs a public verification portal at bis.gov.in. Customers can:

• Use the BIS Care mobile app — type the HUID, see the piece's purity, weight (declared), and registered jeweller.
• Visit the BIS website's HUID lookup page.
• Walk into a BIS-recognised assaying centre for a recheck (small fee).

This transparency is the point of HUID — it lets customers verify before they buy and protects against under-karating.

Penalties & enforcement

Under the BIS Act 2016:

• Selling jewellery without hallmark in a mandatory district — fine up to ₹1 lakh for first offence, can extend to imprisonment for up to one year and fines up to 5x the value of the seized goods.
• Misuse of the BIS mark — separate offence under the same Act.
• Stock seizure during inspection — non-compliant pieces are immediately impounded and sent for testing.

In practice, the bigger risk is reputational. A single news report about a "non-hallmarked stock seized at XYZ Jewellers" destroys local trust faster than any fine.

How jewellery software helps

Manual HUID tracking on paper is doable for < 50 pieces. Beyond that, you need software that:

• Treats HUID as a first-class field on every stock piece — not a free-text note.
• Validates the 6-character format at entry to catch typos.
• Enforces uniqueness — flags duplicates within your inventory.
• Auto-prints HUID on invoice lines without manual copy-paste.
• Generates an inward/outward register on demand for inspection.

Aurex ERP handles all of this natively. The HUID field is required on every gold purchase entry, it prints on every sale invoice, and a single report shows the full lifecycle of every piece by HUID — purchased on X from supplier Y, sold on Z to customer W. If BIS inspectors knock, you hand over the export.

This article is general guidance based on BIS rules as of May 2026. Specific HUID rules and exemptions may change — verify against the latest BIS notification or consult a compliance professional before relying on this for legal decisions.