On the agenda of a parliament plenary sessions of November 22-27, there is included a seemingly routine subject – the bill on nullifying the law on State Control, Marking and Analysis of precious Metals and Stones.

It could be said that from now on the government removes its responsibility on proving the authenticity of precious stones and metals purchased by citizens. The citizens will have to take care of this issue on their own; if one has bought a golden ring for a friend, he has to check the authenticity of the precious metal by taking the ring to a blacksmith, to be sure that the gift is in fact of precious metal and not of a simple glittering metal.

Up today the government was taking care of this issue. the state was responsible of the authenticity of precious items bough at shops. But now it appears that putting mark on jewelry is a source of corruption, and for protecting couple of entrepreneurs laboring in this sector it is better to put the people desiring to buy jewelry at a risk.

There is no shortage in MPs supporting this bill in the parliament. They say that gold is not the equivalent of wealth anymore in the 21st century and thus is no more necessary to place it under the state control. On the last bureau session, Mikheil Matchavariani, vice speaker of the parliament, and some other MPs were assuring their colleagues that the bill was based on European standards and that it was necessary to adopt.

The Parliamentary Chairperson, Nino Burjanadze, doubts that the bill, which is based on European experience, will fit the Georgian reality and avoid becoming a source of fraud for certain individuals.

Incidentally, later Burjanadze mentioned that the bill is already adopted with two hearings and nothing could be changed with that. The chairperson is just asking for one thing: “Let citizens of Georgia have guarantees of buying only high-quality production.”

Apart from the Parliamentary Chairperson there were other politicians who were against the bill, which envisages nullification of the state structure responsible for marking precious metals and transferring of the right on marking precious metals to legal entities of the private law. For example, on the plenary session, the MP Bezhan Butskhrikidze mentioned that in case of adopting this law the population might get deceived like the depositors who were betrayed by private banks.

Threat becomes more apparent if we mention that the substitute for the nullified law on State Control, Marking and Analysis of precious Metals and Stones will be adopted only during the spring session.

So, those who still love and respect gold should be careful as they might get Cuprum instead of Aurum.