Hallmarking of Gold

The Indian government wants all gold jewelry sold in India to have a unique code of nine alpha-numerics. The jewelers are opposing this move.
The official reason given by the government for this code is to prevent fraud. Jewelry can be tracked, i.e., Who owns it? Who sold it? What is the purity&weight of that jewelry? etc.

The real reason for this code is

1. Reduce gold imports
2. Stop investment in gold

India imported $35 billion of gold in the financial year 2020-21. Gold imports are rising at 23% per year. Indians save in gold because the returns are much higher than bank interest rates. The transaction is usually in cash, so no tax is paid on profit. It offers protection against rupee devaluation.
A reduction in the gold investment implies a lower trade deficit for India. For lowering the trade deficit, the Indian government should reduce taxes, improve the business climate, etc. But, the corrupt Indian government doesn't want to make these changes. So it wants to reduce gold imports.
Gold acts as a leash on governments that want to go wild printing currency. No corrupt government likes a leash. So they try every crooked method to break this leash.

Indians should continue to invest in gold. They should oppose any law that makes it difficult to buy/sell gold.