Nepal Gems and Jewelry Association (NGJA) had set gold and silver prices for Wednesday at Rs 31,680 and Rs 521 per 10 grams respectively. However, Tej Ratna Shakya, president of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers, Association (Negosida), said price of gold on the day hovered around Rs 31,635 to 32,000 per 10 grams. [break]
Shakya said silver was selling for Rs 515 to 518 per 10 grams on Wednesday.
“This is confusion over actual prices of gold and silver. This has encouraged the black marketeers to arbitrarily fix the prices of precious metals,” Shakya said. He also accused the NGJA of breaching the understanding reached with Negosida by buying gold from banks and unilaterally fixing gold and silver prices.
Negosida, NGJA and Nepal Gold and Silver Artists´ Association (NGSAA) had agreed on Sunday not to buy gold from banks and fix prices until Thursday when they are holding a meeting to finalize the guidelines for Gold and Silver Management Mechanism.
The three associations are at loggerheads over the distribution of quotas for issuing purchase recommendations of gold to their member traders and dealers.
They had formed the mechanism having equal representations from all the three associations to end the persisting differences over the authority to issue purchase recommendations and fix gold and silver prices for the domestic market.
As per the Nepal Rastra Bank´s recent decision, Negosida can issue purchase recommendations for 50 percent of the gold, while the other two associations can issue recommendations for 25 percent each of the total of 10 kg of gold that the banks can sell in a day.
Shakya said the mechanism would fix the price of gold and silver from Thursday if they became successful in formulating the guidelines that specify the criteria for fixing price of gold and silver in the market.
Traders said they have been failing to control black marketing of gold in the market as the government is providing mere 10 kg of gold against the daily demand of about 35 kg.
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