Impure gold rampantly in use, says Assocham

The impurity levels in gold jewelleries sold in major Indian cities are very high, ranging between 13.44 per cent to 44.66 per cent, according to a report released by Industry chamber Assocham.

The report states that out of 162 samples from 16 cities tested for purity, 147 (90.7 per cent) were found short in purity with average shortfall of 13.44 per cent and highest shortage of 44.66 per cent.

The 16 cities from which jewellery samples were taken include Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Surat, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, Cochin, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Bangalore, Agra and Bhopal.

''The Indian consumer is very often faced with the problem of irregular metal quality. A buyer, for instance, who has bought gold of 22 carats, finds out that it is actually only of 18 carats or less when he goes to sell or exchange it '' , the report states.

The report further adds that the hallmarking of gold has had little impact.

Hallmarking is the accurate determination and official recording of the proportionate content of precious metal and gold.

The findings suggest that while on the one hand gold hallmarking campaign has made little impact, on the other it has also been found out that gold jewellery buyers want to buy gold in traditional form without insisting on hallmarking.

This encourages jewellers to incorporate adulteration in gold.

The chamber has putforward the need for hallmarking of gold jewellery to protect consumers and has written to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Department of Company Affairs to set up over 50 hallmarking centers throughout the country to curb the sale of impure gold.