Ahead of India's first gold exchange, free membership to trade body

MUMBAI (Reuters) - A leading bullion association in India is offering free membership to jewellers across cities and small towns ahead of a planned launch of the country's first physical gold exchange, a move aimed at standardising prices and improving transparency.

The jewellery industry in the world's second largest consumer continues to be dominated by small, family-owned outlets that are not part of any formal grouping, making it difficult for the government to implement regulatory changes and keeping the market opaque.

But the Mumbai-based India Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA), in partnership with the country's oldest stock exchange, BSE Ltd, is planning to launch a gold exchange next year and has started a drive to attract participants.

IBJA, which consists of gold dealers, traders and jewellers, currently has only 3,000 members and wants that to jump to 100,000 by the time the exchange is launched.

The association has scrapped the membership fee of around $1,494.

"We're trying to rope in jewellers not only from big cities, but even from small towns without charging membership fee," IBJA president Mohit Kamboj said. "This will help to make government schemes popular. The member jewellers will also benefit from the physical gold exchange."

($1 = 66.9200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Sunil Nair)