MC inspection teams, in cooperation with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and the General Authority for Zakat and Income, continue to implement a joint inspection campaign targeting the precious metals and gemstones (gold and jewelry) shops and workshops in Riyadh. This is to verify the regularity of their work.
The joint campaign resulted in inspecting 142 shops and detecting 115 violations. The necessary legal penalties were imposed in accordance with the Precious Metals and Gemstones Law and its implementing regulations.
The violations including practicing the gold activity without a license or the expiration of the licenses, the absence of the manufacturer or importer’s imprint "trademark", violations related to the invoices, in addition to the violations of illegal employment and value added tax.
These inspection tours aim to ensure the regularity of work of the commercial establishments engaged in the activities of precious metals and gemstones, also to control the crimes and violations related to the commercial concealment and money laundering, cases of non-reporting of suspicious transactions, as well as not keeping records and invoices for selling and purchasing for a period of 10 years in accordance with the Precious Metals and Gemstones Law.
The inspection campaign also aims to verify the existence of valid licenses for practicing gold activity, also to ensure the presence of a "trademark" stamp, as well as to control fraud or deception violations in precious metals and gemstones, in addition to taking samples from artifacts to ensure their quality and to verify the gold rate, and making sure of granting the consumers the purchase invoices with full data, in addition to verifying that the addresses of gold shops are not changed without prior approval, also to ensure not selling the used items without disclosure, besides not selling artifacts outside the shop.
It is worth noting that the Precious Metals and Gemstones Law and its implementing regulations emphasized imposing a number of penalties related to violations of precious metals and gemstones, including imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding 400 thousand riyals against anyone who deceives or commits fraud in the type, weight or caliber of precious metals, or in the painted or coated items, also against anyone who deceives in the type, kind, weight, or quality of precious stones.
Violators shall also be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months and a fine not exceeding ninety thousand riyals, or either of them against anyone who practices gold trade, goldsmith or artifacts without a license, also a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand riyals against anyone commits another violation related to Precious Metals & Gemstones Law and its implementing regulations
The Ministry of Commerce urges all consumers to report any violations related to precious metals and gemstones through MC Consumer Call Center (1900), or through the application of a Commercial Violation Report. The Ministry of Human Resources receives reports against illegal labors through the following number (19911), and Zakat and Income Authority receives reports against violations of value-added tax on the number 19993