THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Next time when you visit a gold loan-lending firm, ensure that the actual weight of the ornament is recorded in the receipt you get. The Legal Metrology Department (LMD), in a surprise raid on banks and private gold loan-lending businesses across the state recently, found that several private financiers were recording less than the actual weight of the ornament pledged.
According to the officials who led the inspection, financiers rounded down the actual weight of the ornament without the knowledge of the customer. In Kollam, a private financier was found to have rounded down 1 gm in the record without the knowledge of the customer.Similar instances of fraudulent practices were reported from different parts of the state. They included the cases booked against a financier in Kasargod for rounding down 750 mg, a Thrissur-based firm for recording 420 mg less, and one financier each in Pathanamthitta and Palakkad for rounding down 300 mg.
Legal Metrology Controller P Suresh Babu said that the customers should verify the weight for themselves while pledging. “It is important to verify that the weight shown in the balance is correctly recorded in the receipt given to you. Also, the actual weight should be recorded even if you loan lesser amount than the maximum entitlement,” he said.
Rounding down the weight of an ornament would help the financier in two ways. One, he pays less than the actual amount entitled to the customer. Second, if the customer fails to pay back and the ornament is auctioned off, the balance amount for the customer is calculated on the fake figure.
The All Kerala Private Bankers Association said that the rounding off would help financiers to avoid losses. “Generally, old ornaments will have dirt accumulated on them which would add to the actual weight. Some ornaments are brought immediately after a wash or taken off from sweaty body. Water content in an ornament cannot be rubbed away instantly” said association president PA Jose.
According to Jose, financiers record net weight instead of the gross weight. And this is done with the knowledge of the customer, he added.The LMD officials also came across a case in which the weight of an ornament was marked higher than the actual value. This was reported from a scheduled bank in Kasargod. Officials suspect some malpractice by the appraiser in the bank.
Licences not renewed
The most common offence identified in the raid was the financiers’ failure to renew the licence for weighing balance. Some branches of nationalised and scheduled banks were also booked for this. Cases were also registered against financiers who used balances without 10 mg division on the scale.