New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- In the run-up to the festival season, the consumer affairs department is planning to publish a list of BIS-registered silver retailers on its website and advertise it through state governments, two government officials directly involved in the process told Mint.

Against the backdrop of mandatory silver jewellery hallmarking, likely to start in October, the plan also involves making it mandatory for e-commerce platforms to clearly disclose whether silver products sold on their platforms are hallmarked by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), they said.

Currently, around 25,000 silver retailers are registered with BIS, and the proposed government-backed list would provide consumers with an official reference to iden...