The Department of Commerce and Supply Management has formally dispatched letters seeking clarifications from four jewellery shops that were found to have sold products of poor quality.

The four shops are Shubha Shree Jewellers of Kalimati, Surya Bahadur Sons of Wotu, Shakya Shree Sun-Chandi Pasal of Kalimati and New Subarna Laxmi Jewellers of Kilagal.

Last Thursday, a surprise monitoring conducted by the department found a number of jewellery shops in Kalimati involved in market anomalies. Deepak Pokhrel, monitoring officer at the department, said they had asked the shops to furnish their clarification within three days.

The violations were discovered during random inspections conducted at these outlets by the department. A lab test conducted by the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology showed that the gold ornaments sold by these shops did not meet the required quality standard.

As per the regulatory authority, the purity of the products sold by some of these shops was only up to 88 percent. As per the law, jewellery shops should maintain 99 percent purity of 24-carat gold.

Pokhrel said the department was planning to file cases against these shops under Consumer Protection Act 1998 at the Kathmandu District Court.

“After receiving the clarifications and the consent of the public prosecutor’s office, we will begin proceedings under Clause 30 of the act,” he said. As per the clause, the government of Nepal may frame necessary rules to implement the objectives of the act.

The department is also preparing to file cases against 21 jewellery shops whose attendants fled when officials arrived for a surprise inspection.

These jewellery shops are New Sambhu Ratna Bajracharya & Sons, Gold & Silver Star, Namra Bajra Ornament, Gahana Griha, Shakya & Sons, Yas Jewellers, Saubhagya Sun-Chandi Gahana Pasal, Nilima Gahana Pasal, New Jayshree Om Jewellers and Om Siddhi Binayak Jewellers.

The others are Om Siddhi Jewellers, Chain Jewellers, Jay Shree Ganesh Sun-Chandi Pasal, Shree Tara Jewellers, Shakya Ornament, Shubha Laxmi Jewellers, Gyan Ratna & Sons, Four Nine Sunko Pasal, Satya Sai, Sapta and Socks, and Amrit Jewellers.