Impurity in gold sold by jewellers on decline: BIS survey

Panaji, Nov 29 (UNI) The shortage in purity of gold jewellery sold in the country ranges from a minimum 0.10 per cent to a whopping maximum of 44.66 per cent.

This was disclosed in an all-India market survey on no-hallmarked jewellery conducted last year by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which certifies the jewellery for hallmark.

The shortage of purity was still more in the survey conducted in the year 2001. With the consumer awareness movement through '' Jago Grahak'' (Consumer Awake) organised by the state-owned Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation making a dent, people have started preferring hallmarked jewellery.

The BIS had made the survey in the year 2006 with 162 samples collected from 15 cities/towns. It had passed only 16 samples and failed the remaining 146, including five due to detection of impurities.

Talking to UNI on the sidelines of the five-day mega 'Festival of Gold-2007' that got underway today in this international tourist destination for the first time, the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) CMD Sanjiv Batra said the average shortage in purity of gold sold in the country was put at 13.51 per cent.

The situation would change now that the Centre had made it compulsory for jewellers to sell only hallmarked jewellery with effect from next year even as the MMTC was selling it since a long through its series of exhibitions in India and abroad.

The survey had also noted that the samples surveyed contained a minimum 0.02 shortage in CARATS and a maximum of 9.83 carats, thus detecting an average shortage of three carats in the jewellery sold.

None of the samples collected from New Delhi, Kanpur, Pune, Jaipur, Madurai and Chandigarh passed the test. Only one sample had been passed from the samples collected from Ranchi, Indore, Jammu, Jodhpur, Thiruvananthapuram and Varodara.

Two samples collected from Bhubhaneshwar, Meerut and Ludhiana and four collected from Gurgaon passed the survey.

The purity was still lesser in samples collected from different cities and towns in the survey made in the year 2001.

With awareness on rise, people have started insisting on purchasing certified hallmarked jewellery which had now come handy through the MMTC outlets.

UNI