Jewellers have asked the government to extend the deadline for mandatory hallmarking of old stocks by a year till August 21, 2022, because of the fewer number of hallmarking centres in the country.

The All India Jewellers & Goldsmith Federation (AIJGF), in a communication to commerce minister Piyush Goyal, said it was impossible to obtain hallmark on each piece of the old stock because of the discrepancy between the huge number of jewellers and the limited number of hallmarking centres.

AIJGF national president Pankaj Arora said there are 933 hallmark centres and about 65,000 registered jewellers. Even if all the centres work in full swing, a huge number of the old stock will not be able to get the mandatory hallmark within the stipulated timeline.