How Dubai Governs Its Gold

Dubai’s high standard of gold quality and trade transparency combined with a jaw-dropping 98% compliance level, makes a perfect case study for how India needs to emulate the best practices that lures buyers from world over to the ‘City of Gold’

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The federal authority supervising the hallmarking and tagging of gold jewellery in the UAE is Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA). ESMA develops and issues UAE national standards applicable to gems and jewellery.

CLEAR HALLMARKING GUIDELINES

ESMA has laid out a robust and well-defined set of guidelines that the retailers have to adhere to before the end product is hallmarked and tagged for display and sale at retail stores. ESMA conducts regular audits to verify if the retailer adheres to the stipulated standards and if the purity/specifications of the product matches with the tag/ hallmark. Each hallmarked tag bears certain symbol (as per the ESMA regulation), product specifications such as carat/purity, weight etc. to ensure complete transparency for the consumer.