The market surveillance authority of Ho Chi Minh City announced on Friday night that it had confiscated VND499.6 million (US$19,630) worth of gold products from many gold shops which were found to have violated rules of origin.

The municipal Market Surveillance Department made the seizure of such gold products during its inspections into gold shops citywide over the past week to check their compliance with regulations on doing gold-related business.

In Thu Duc City under the jurisdiction of Ho Chi Minh City, five gold trading firms subject to the inspections presented business registration certificates as per prevailing rules.

Nevertheless, the five enterprises were unable to present invoices and certificates of origin for their unlabeled gold products, including rings, necklaces, bracelets, and pendants, with a combined value surpassing VND233.9 million ($9,190).

In the outlying district of Hoc Mon, a task force including market surveillance and police officers raided a gold shop whose jewelry items had neither labels nor information about their quality and origin.

The shop owner did not possess any certificates of origin and invoices of these items, valued at VND49 million ($1,925).

As of now, the forces have seized up to VND499.6 million worth of gold products and jewelry without clear origins, a Market Surveillance Department of Ho Chi Minh City representative said.

Earlier, plenty of gold shops in the southern metropolis erected signs of temporary closure following the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance’s large-scale inspection into gold shops in various localities.

Nguyen Quang Huy, deputy head of the city’s Market Surveillance Department, asked market surveillance forces to strictly supervise gold trading locations, especially gold shops on the department’s watch list, in order to promptly detect and tackle violators.

The prime minister had previously required strengthening the management of the local gold market.

He asked the State Bank of Vietnam to keep a close watch on international and domestic gold prices and take measures to regulate the gold market.

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