Jewellers make hay in absence of regulatory mechanism

Hundreds of thousands of gold dealers (jewellers) across the country are fleecing consumers by overcharging in the absence of any official regulatory mechanism and cheating them by selling impure ornaments without the presence of any standard quality testing laboratory, sources said.
They said the gold was being sold in the local market at the rate much higher than that at which it was being imported mainly from some European and Gulf States.
They put the difference between the import and retail price of the commodity at some Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per 10 grams in various cities of the country. This huge amount (the disparity between import and retail price) went to the pockets of importers, distributors and jewellers, they added. But, they continued, mainly jewellers were earning more than any other player in the whole business.
"Jewellers' share is much higher than both importers and dealers," a source in the gold business told this correspondent. Usually, an importer earned Rs 500 to Rs 700 on 10 grams of gold and a jeweller got around Rs 2,500 for the same quantity. Absence of any regulatory mechanism on part of the government, is main reason of overcharging, sources said.
Besides, most of the jewellers also took advantage of the non-existence of any official or private quality-testing lab and freely sold ornaments made of impure gold, they added.
"In most of the cases, they sale impure gold and thus cheat consumers," a gold dealer said. When contacted, a renowned jeweller in Islamabad also did not deny this cheating. He refused to be named though. "Yes, most of us (jewellers) do not sale 100 per cent pure gold because we know no body can check the purity as no quality testing lab is available in Pakistan," the jeweller said.
There has always been a general complaint about the quality of gold on parts of consumers. "If you go back to the same jewellers whom you have purchased the gold, he will deduct some weight due to impurity. This is something the government should look into immediately," a buyer said.
The market analysts are of the view that the government can save consumers from this heavy overcharging and cheating by envisaging a regulatory mechanism and establishing quality-testing labs at least in some big cities.