Want to sell your old gold or know the purity of the ornament? Not that people did not do so in the past but by and large accepted whatever the jewellers said, be it in terms of metal purity or buyback rate.

To empower customers with information and make the business of old gold sale more transparent, Muthoot Exim Pvt Ltd, the precious metals division of Muthoot Pappachan Group (MPG), has launched its first outlet – Muthoot Gold Point in Coimbatore.

The opening of this outlet marks the company’s foray into retail gold aggregation and recycling business, says Keyur Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Precious Metals Division, MPG.

The company plans to open a similar outlet in Chennai, followed by another in Madurai region before the close of this fiscal.

"We identified Tamil Nadu as a potential state for retail gold aggregation as South India accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s gold consumption and 70 per cent of this consumption is in this State," he said in reply to a query.

Elaborating on the new business, Shah said the company’s objective is to cater to the burgeoning individual household need to recycle unwanted, old and used gold jewellery by buying the scrap or used jewellery items directly from the customers.

The new facility established by the company here would ensure transparency in purity, weight and valuation. "We will offer the live market rate and not go by the fixed rate for the day. We have a national pricing policy," Shah said.

He said India is one of the largest importers of gold in the world and already had an estimated stock of more than 25,000 tonnes in the custody of private households and temple trusts. "All this is lying idle and our average import of bullion over the last 8 years has stood at around 800 tonnes/ annum."

"If such idle holding is brought into the market, our dependence on import would decline drastically. Only 200 to 300 tonnes of used gold is recycled annually at present," Mr Shah noted.

Muthoot Exim has tied up with Mumbai-based Infinium Precious Resources for refining the scrap gold. "They will help reprocess and refine the scrap, which can be supplied as refined bars for domestic consumption. By doing so, we will be able to supply "made in India" gold bars," he said, stressing on the need for more refineries in India.

The launch of ‘Muthoot Gold Point’ is seen as a significant step as it aligns with the Government’s objective of keeping the current account deficit under control as it would aid in garnering and channelising domestic unused gold to productive use.

Reverting to silver, he said "we started the initiative in Gujarat as it is the largest consumer of silver. The purity levels are pathetic. Incidentally, the standard for silver is not defined in India. We have created the standard. ‘Swethavarsham’ is our flagship product. These are hallmarked silver coins, which can be purchased on monthly payment basis. We have a network of 200 branches in Gujarat. We intend to foray into the Tamil Nadu market before the close of this fiscal."

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