UrBC, Yekaterinburg, April 23, 2019. Russia’s Finance Ministry suggested this week that all precious metals, precious stones, and jewelry pieces made from them should get stamped starting from 2020; the draft bill to this effect is now available online at regulation.gov.ru. Prime reports.

Under the terms of the proposal, the State Integrated Information System for Precious Metals/Precious Stones Surveillance will have to get introduced as well.

A number of executive bodies apportioned by the Russian Government, Russia’s Central Bank, certain other banks, businesses, and sole traders dealing in precious stones and precious metals would all have to enter their data into the said system.

The Finance Ministry now has to develop the proposed system based on the feedback provided by the companies that took part in an experiment (held on June 1-November 1, 2018). The precious metal manufacturers and jewelry companies that agreed to take part in the experiment added a special QR code to their labels; the code could get scanned with a smartphone for information on the kind of item sold and where and from what metals it was made.

The goal is to protect customers against smuggled/counterfeit items or against manufacturers lying about the actual worth of the stones/metals they use.