Demand for this specialty has grown significantly as a result of recent corporate scandals. However, a class of traders were selling imitation jewelery under the name of silver ornaments. Customers are being deceived.
Bangladesh Jewelers Association has taken initiative to curb this chaotic silver market. The organization has made hallmarking mandatory in silver ornaments as well as gold. At the same time, the leaders of the association are thinking of banning the making and sale of traditional silver ornaments within six months to a year.
In addition to making Hallmark compulsory, the association has also fixed the price of silver ornaments. The price of a 22 carat heavy silver ornament will be 1 thousand 518 rupees. 21 and 18 carat heavy silver ornaments will cost 1 thousand 434 and 1 thousand 224 rupees respectively. And the silver ornaments of the traditional method cost 933 rupees as before.
The current leadership of the organization formed an 11-member committee on September 1 by convening Dewan Aminul Islam, former general secretary of the jewelers' association, to bring order to the silver jewelery market. On the basis of the report of that committee, the association has made Hallmark compulsory in silver ornaments as well as fixed the price.
When asked, Dilip Kumar Agarwala, general secretary of the Jewelers' Association, told Prothom Alo, "Buyers have been cheating on silver jewelery for a long time. In many cases, imitation jewelery is also being used as a silver ornament. So I have taken initiative to improve the quality of silver market. '
Even a decade ago, buyers and sellers were skeptical about how much pure gold could be obtained by breaking gold ornaments. In 2006 Hallmark was made compulsory by the Jewelers Association. Since then, the seller has engraved and written down the amount of pure gold on the ornaments. The matter is also written in the receipt for buying jewelery.
Usually after preparing the ornaments, the two companies Bangla Gold and Dhaka Gold test it with modern equipment and find out the amount of pure gold. Brands and well-known jewelers adhere to it, but Hallmark, a small and medium-sized mooseball company, does not.
The leaders of the association said that the chaos in the silver market is worse in urban areas than in villages. However, if the hallmark system is implemented, it will come under control. In case of sale of old silver jewelery, the price will be fixed at 40 per cent exclusion. And if you take new ornaments instead of old ornaments, 25 percent will be deducted.
Dewan Aminul Islam, former general secretary of the association, told Prothom Alo yesterday that the fraud would be stopped as hallmarking was mandatory in gold as well as silver jewelery.
Very good article