The proposed standard states that 24 carat of gold jewelries must be 99.9 percent pure, 22 karat 91.6 percent pure and 18 karat 75 percent pure.
KATHMANDU: Nepal has decided to standardize price and quality of gold, silver, diamond and jewelries and other items made from them.
Country's Commerce ministry has drafted a proposal and classified gold, silver and diamond on the basis of their purity. As per the proposed standard, gold and gold jewelries should always be measured in karats and must have the stipulated purity percentage.
The proposed standard states that 24 carat of gold jewelries must be 99.9 percent pure, 22 karat 91.6 percent pure and 18 karat 75 percent pure. Similarly, 14, 12 and 9 karats gold must be 58.33, 50 and 37.5 percent pure respectively.
Likewise, as per the proposed standard, silver should be measured in sterling and silver and items made from silver must be 99.9 percent pure. Likewise, diamond has been classified as precious, semi-precious and synthetic.
It is mentioned in the draft that bullion traders will have the right to claim up to three percent wastage while making gold jewelries and up to six percent wastage while making silver jewelries and other items.
The draft proposal seeks a complete ban on mixing of metals like cadmium, lead and mercury while making gold and silver jewelries. Besides, while mixing metals other than the banned ones, jewelers must mention the name of the metal and quantity used.
While fixing the maximum retail price of the ready made jewelry, jewelers should mention making charges, amount and price of additives used, wastage and should not charge more the stipulated price. Traders will be allowed to add only up to five percent over the cost price.
However, many Nepalese bullion traders said the purity as mentioned in the draft cannot be maintained as purity of gold decreases after it is melted to make jewelry items.
No comments:
Post a Comment