Three shops selling low quality gold jewelries: NBSM
KATHMANDU, May 24:
Shree Riddhi Sidhhi Jewellers and Shalimar Jewellers at Bishal Bazar and Geetanjali Jewellers at Durbar Marg have been found cheating customers by selling low quality gold jewelries, according to a quality test report of the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM).
The Bureau had collected the samples from the jewelery shops on Tuesday and released the quality test report on Thursday. The report has mentioned that the jewelry samples showed that the they were of low quality.
However, Geetanjali Jewellers has challenged the outcome of the report saying that their product of the same batch had passed the quality test at a private lab.
Prasun Jalan, director of Urja Ventures that runs Geetanjali Jewellers said that the test of rodium polished gold ring had error. "We have tested the rings of same lot in a private lab in New Road and it was at par with the existing standard. Hence, we will be requesting NBSM to carry out the test of the sample again," said Jalan.
The Deputy Director General of the Bureau, Biswa Babu Pudasaini, also said that he has checked the lab report presented by Geetanjali and said that the Bureau would look into the case again.
The monitoring team, which included representatives of NBSM, the Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM), District Administration Office (DAO) and the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights-Nepal (FPCR-N) had monitored four jewelry shops: Shree Riddhi Sidhhi Jewellers, Shagoon Diamonds and Shalimar Jewellers at Bishal Bazar and Geetanjali Jewellers at Durbar Marg on Tuesday.
The quality test report shows that a 24 carat gold ear top taken for test from Shree Riddhi Siddhi Jewellers had 97.51 percent gold and 1.15 percent cadmium and the gold bangle of 22 carat consisted of 90.28 percent gold, according to DDG Pudasaini. Likewise, 22 carat of gold ring taken from Shalimar Jewellers consisted of 89.29 percent gold and 18 carat rodium polished gold ring taken from Geetanjali Jewellers consisted of 71.01 percent gold.
According to NBSM, 16 carat gold jewelries must consist 66.6 percent gold, 18 carat gold jewelries must consist not less than 75 percent gold, 22 carat gold jewelries must have 91.6 percent gold and 24 carat gold jewelries need to have 99.5 percent gold.
However, 22 carat gold ring, 24 carat gold pendent and 16 carat diamond ring taken from Shagoon Diamonds, 24 carat gold chain taken from Shalimar Jewellers and 22 carat gold ring taken from Geetanjali Jewellers were at par with the standard of NBSM.
After the monitoring on Tuesday, the Bureau team had instructed Shree Riddhi Siddhi Jewllers, Shalimar Jewellers and Geetanjali Jewellers to stop selling diamond jewelries as they did not have weighing machines necessary for sales of diamond.
“We have asked all the three shops to make necessary arrangement for balance and weight," said Hari Narayan Belbase, director of DoCSM. "Likewise, we have also instructed all the four shops to submit the 10 latest purchase bills and sales bill from May 15 within 7 days.”
But Jalan claimed that he has not received any orders to stop selling diamond jewelries.
Source: Republica
