The anomalies came to light when a joint team of the Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM) and the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) inspected three jewelry outlets in the New Road area, Monday. [break]
The monitoring team inspected Ganapati Jewellers on New Road and RB Diamond Jewelers and Tejmin Jewelery at Pyukha.
“We found that Ganapati Jewelers was using a weighing machine meant for weighing silver to weight gold and diamonds. Besides, the weighing machines used in the shop were not certified by NBSM,” said Ram Adhar Sah, director general of NBSM.
Under existing rules, weighing machines should be certified by NBSM and the certification renewed every year.
Jewelers need to have separate weighing machines for silver, gold and diamonds.
According to Sah, weighing machines for silver show only whole numbers. But machines used for weighing gold should be accurate to two decimal points, while those for weighing diamond should have an accuracy up to three decimal points.
Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM) and the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Meteorology (NBSM) conducted a market inspection of gold and diamond jewelry shop upon receiving complaints from customers at Pyukha, New Road in Kathmandu on Monday. (Photo: Dipesh Shrestha)
“Traders were found using weighing machines meant for silver to weigh gold and diamond. This means when a customer buys a tola (11.664 grams) of gold, there are chances he or she will get only 11 grams,” said Jyoti Baniya, general secretary of Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights-Nepal (FPCR-N). “This translates into a profit of 10 percent for the gold trader.”
The monitoring team seized the defective machines from the shop.
Similarly, RB Diamond Jewelers was found using a new kind of pocket weighing machine without any certification from NBSM. It was also found using 8 percent filler additives in jewelry, which is much higher than the existing limit.
The team seized two pocket weighing machines from the store.
“We also found that there was machine tampering to show excess weight,” Prem Lal Maharjan, chairman of Alliance for Consumer Rights, said. “This shows that the outlet was cheating customers.”
Talking to Republica, Maharjan said monitoring was ineffective as the owners of jewelry stores already have information about surprise monitoring before the team reaches the stores. “The government should form three or four teams and conduct monitoring simultaneously,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ramesh Maharjan, proprietor of RB Diamod Jewellers, said they were using the weighing machines only for internal purposes. “We have not used the machines for selling or buying gold,” Maharjan said, adding, “We have not received any complaints from customers regarding the quality of our jewelry.”
The officials found no anomaly at Tejmin Jewellery.
The market monitoring team has taken samples of gold and diamonds from all three outlets to determine the quality. The team also collected buying and selling invoices from all three shops to check whether they were selling at actual prices or overcharging.
“We have been receiving complaints from customers that traders are charging higher prices. We will study the invoices to find out,” said Binod Prakash Singh, deputy director-general DoCSM.
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