After the New Road-based jewellerty traders protested the government move to close the shops allegedly involved in malpractice, a market monitoring team which had set out to inspect more jewellery shops on Tuesday suddenly called off the inspection. Most of the shops that were closed belong to the members of the Nepal Gold, Silver, Gem and Jewellery Federation. However, shops associated with Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Associations (Fenegosida), another organisation of gold dealers, remained open on the day.
Traders have accused the government of “terrorising” jewellery traders and customers in the name of monitoring rather than adopting standard norms to check possible irregularity in the market.
But the authorities stick to their guns, insisting that the government is preparing to file cases against the jewellery traders who were found cheating customers in weight and quality of goldand silvers products.
“Even as we could not monitor jewellery shops today, we will continue inspection as it is part of our regular job to control unethical practices,” said Narayan Prasad Bidari, director general of the Department of Commerce and Supply Management.
According to Bidari, the department will soon file cases in a district court against the traders who were found guilty through monitoring and sample test of jewellery items by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM). The NBSM’s report of the sample test released on Monday evening revealed that all the three shops were found involved in misconduct in violation of the consumers’ rights.
On Monday, the government monitoring team during its inspection in New Road area found Shree Ganapati Jewellers, RB Diamonds and Tejmin Jewellers cheating customers using unapproved weighing machines and selling adulterated goldornaments and silver utensils.
The department said that it would file cases against the traders as per the Consumer Rights Protection Act once it receives a report from the NBSM. “Shops deceiving in quality of gold will also face action as per the Black Marketing Act,” he added.
The NBSM has directed the shops to get their weighing tools certified from it. “We are further investigating if the traders were cheating customers intentionally,” said Ram Adhar Sah, NBSM director general. “On the basis of Standard Weights and Measures Act, jewellers could face a jail term of up to one year and penalty of Rs 1,000 for using malfunctioning weighing machines,” he explained.
Shree Ganapati’s sample item had only 97 percent gold against the promised tag of 24 carat (99.50 percent), according to the report. Similarly, RB Diamond and Tejmin’s silver products contained copper and cadmium respectively. Besides, Shree Ganapati and RB Diamonds were found using unauthorised weighting machines for selling diamond and gold jewelleries.
Meanwhile, a delegation of bullion dealers’ federation submitted a memorandum to the Ministers for Industry, and Commerce and Supplies condemning Monday’s inspection. “We are not against the market monitoring but it should be carried out following a standard guideline,” said Ramesh Maharjan, president of the jewellers’ federation.
Expressing its concern over the government move, Fenegosida also urged the government to include its representative while carrying out monitoring.
Manik Ratna Shakya, general secretary of Fenegosida, lamented that the government carried out monitoring activities as if it were dealing with criminals. “We welcome a systematic and regular monitoring but it is wrong to assume the whole market is spoiled,” he added.
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