There are several big trade centers of gold in Yerevan. The most famous ones among them are “Vagharsh and sons” Ltd, Malatya market, Tashir trade center, and Yerevan trade fair. Pursuant to the new law on precious metals, all products in the gold market are subject to a new Armenian trademark. To note, before this trademark was in the form of a star, but the new one will bear the image of “Sasuntsi David”.
Armenia was the last country among the CIS countries to adopt a law on precious metals. This law was adopted last year and entered into force as of January 1 of this year; nevertheless, the government has not created adequate legal grounds for the fulfillment of this law. Before adopting the mentioned law, the right for assessing gold and putting a trademark on it was conferred on the “Metal assessment department”. According to the new law, the field is free now and producers themselves have the right of assessing their production and put standard signs on them. This system exists in developed countries, where each jeweler has a personal license number, which they put on their production, thus their consumers know well whose production they have bought. Accordingly, if it turns out later that the quality does not correspond with the standard symbol on it, they can return it and claim a financial reimbursement.
“168 Hours” has already discussed the existing situation in the market of gold, where the specialists say that very often what people sell is anything else but gold. Furthermore, the managers of “Vagharsh and sons” Ltd don’t exclude such possibility. Samvel Melikyan, acting chief of the company’s department in charge of assessing and putting trademarks, says that even if the quality of the gold corresponds with the symbol of standard, it may have some different contents of metals in it, which is not permissible.
For instance, many jewelers may mix the gold with other cheap metals other than silver so as not to spend much money. Such things are very easy to break. It is not unexpected either that there may be things in the market that don’t generally comply with the standard symbol on them. The new law has already entered into force, but you can’t find a single product with the new symbol of standard. We asked deputy director of “Vagharsh and sons” Ltd about the reasons for this shortcoming.
– The applicable law seems to be both existing and not existing. We have got a license for putting our trademark, which is numbered “02”, but we haven’t been given the serial name yet. I think that it would be better if they tried to tax the businesses occupied in gold production before applying this standard. They may come and inspect at any time since the sellers of gold are considered to be doing illegal business now.
– According to the governmental bodies, one trademark costs about AMD 1200-2500. Does this mean that the sellers who want to sell jewelry in your market will have to pay that money or you will do that free of charge?
– The amount you said is too high. Our standard symbol is “02”. I suppose the one under “01” code will be given to a subsidiary of the “Metal assessment department” as it doesn’t have a right to be involved in any activities other than inspection, thus I think it will be done by a subsidiary company. Their service may cost that much. As for our price, we will fix it as a result of competition and I think it will be about AMD 600-1200. The price you said (AMD 2500) is way too expensive. If a person has 50 gold products to sell, he will have to pay $ 357 for affixing the standard symbol. We haven’t calculated the formation of the price yet. We have to get the serial name from the government first, see how much we will have to pay for it, and later based on that sum calculate the sum of one standard symbol.
– According to the information of the metal assessment department, up to now 10-15,000 gold products have been trademarked, most of which belonged to “Yerevan gold factory”, and the other trademarks are considered illegal now. Who trademarks the gold products sold in your market?
– Your information is not correct. Our market is the biggest one (we have 600 sellers and workshops where over 3,200 jewelers work), which was founded in 2001 and which has the purpose to take the gold products from private hands to the metal assessment department for professional assessment, where they were trademarked.
– How many products have been trademarked by your service so far?
– There was a problem there. Those people were not taxed and thus their activities were not registered. We did that for the purpose of our reputation.
– You paid the metal assessment department for their service, accordingly you should have known the number of the products trademarked there. Otherwise it would mean that they didn’t pay taxes either.
– Certainly we maintained all the necessary documents when working with that department, but it is a problem to count the number of the products trademarked during these years.
– Can you say last year’s number?
– We haven’t made such calculations.
– How much did you pay to the department for trademarking one gold product?
– About AMD 600-1200. We did that work voluntarily so that those people would not have to go there separately. There is a problem of security here too. We didn’t have any mechanisms to direct everyone to give their products for assessment.
– Did the products you took to that department have problems?
– There have been such cases and the department did not trademark those products, and thus they were returned to the owners. No one is safe from mistakes, notwithstanding it is not excepted that they might do that purposely.
– It is established that imported products shall have a symbol consisting of two circles; otherwise they have to be trademarked by the department in charge of trademarking. The imported products are trademarked in an unacceptable manner for us. Has your service taken any imported products to the mentioned department for trademarking or not?
– No, we haven’t taken any imported products, but this sphere will be regulated within these two months, when we get the serial name and are able to trademark all the products in the market with the new “Sasuntsi David” symbol.
– How much do they pay for one table in your market?
– The price for one table per month is AMD 35,000. Before, the law provided that the tables could be provided to private persons too, but now it provides that they have to be legal entities, and if not, we will be imposed with huge penalties. Currently, 490 sellers out of the 600 are private entrepreneurs. They are going to pay fixed taxes, such as AMD 1800, for one table and AMD 5000 for social payments.
The first institutions to see the shortcomings in the gold market are the banks. Some banks have even refused to prolong the credit terms instead of a gold pledge and demanded to cover the credits. Furthermore, they refused to take gold under pledge in cases when the price of gold was growing worldwide day by day. Armen Baghdasaryan, who knows the tricks in the gold market very well, thinks that some banks have bean cheated as a result of accepting fake gold. “If one brings gold to the market and wants to sell it as metal, he or she agrees to make a hole in the gold to see whether there are other metals inside the gold or not. Notwithstanding, banks cannot do that. They take the property under pledge and cannot affect it. I think that banks are suspicious whether the gold they have taken under pledge is real or not, and they are trying to get rid of the gold as soon as possible. It is difficult for banks to create a sustainable mechanism for checking. They have to weigh the gold in the air and water, and then calculate its parameters according to the rule of Archimed,” he said. The head of “Armeconombank”, David Sukiasyan, says that the mentioned bank might have revised its policy and does not give small credits any more. “Armeconombank” feels secure in this matter, as they have an expert specialist in the bank.