Hallmark certification for gold, silver introduced

KATHMANDU, Nov 11:

The government has introduced hallmarking system for gold and silver jewelries.

The 92nd meeting of Nepal Standard Council (NSC) held on Friday took the decision to this effect.

Hallmarking system is the system under which a mark or number of marks are made on gold, silver and other precious metals to confirm that their quality are up to the correct standard.

“We have opened the doors for jewelers to adopt hallmarking system," Bishwo Babu Pudasaini, member secretary of NSC told Republica. “Adoption of hallmarking system by Nepali jewelers will assure costumers that they are getting pure jewelries.”

However, Pudasaini, who is also the director general of Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology (NBSM), said that the new system will not be mandatory for jewelers now. “This is the first time that we have introduced the hallmark certification process in Nepal,” Pudasaini said, adding that it will be made mandatory after studying the system for couple of months.

As per the newly endorsed hallmarking system, NBSM will issue hallmark certification to jewelers based on some specific parameters.

An NS mark will be put in gold and silver jewelries along with purity level and certification date, according to Pudasaini. "We will soon form a panel of experts and government officials to deal with issues related to hallmarking system for gold and silver,” he added.

Pudaisini was hopeful that the hallmarking system will put to an end the conflict between government officials and jewelers regarding monitoring of jewelry outlets.

Lab tests conducted by the government, in course of market monitoring some months ago, had confirmed that domestic jewelers were selling gold and silver with low purity level. Jewelers, however, had condemned the monitoring, terming the entire process unscientific.

As per the provision set by NBSM set provision, 24-carat gold should have purity level of 99.5 percent.

Meanwhile, gold and silver dealers have welcomed the hallmarking system. “Hallmarking of gold is the international standard practiced in bullion industry. Adoption of the system will help traders to find international market for domestic jewelry products," Mani Ratna Shakya, president of the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealer Associations, said. "So far, we were selling jewelries on the basis of mutual trust. Hallmarking system will certify the quality of our products."

Shakya, however, added that the hallmarking system will be applicable only to big jewelry houses, which have their manufacturing units in Nepal, and not to small-scale manufacturers. He also urged the government to set-up a sophisticated laboratory to test purity of gold as the existing lab and equipment do not meet the international standards to test gold jewelries.

QUALITY OF AROMATIC OIL TO BE TESTED

The 92nd meeting of NSC also decided to test the quality of aromatic oil produced locally and give Nepal Standard (NS) certification accordingly.

"We are starting a system to test the quality of aromatic oil," Pudasaini told Republica. "NS certification will help locally produced aromatic oil to find buyers in foreign countries," he said, adding that aromatic oil will tested as per the standards set by International Standard Organization (ISO).

Source: Republica