Today’s Gold Rate in Karnataka

With the introduction of the GST (Good and services tax), excise duty and VAT has been replaced with the GST of 3% on the total price of gold including making charges.

Indian Bullion Jewellers Association (IBJA) takes the international price of the gold as a base and adds applicable taxes. After that, other state jeweller associations decide on the rate at which gold will be sold to the retailers. This causes the gold rate in Karnataka to vary with other states. 

Gold in its physical form can be bought from a jeweller or via online. Here are the options to buy gold jewellery and gold coins:

Gold Jewellery: One of the oldest forms of gold investment, it can be bought from a nearest jeweller or from their official websites.It is suggested to buy gold jewellery from a reputed jeweller which gives a hallmark certificate.

Gold Coins/Bars: They can be bought from jewellers, banks, and now even from ecommerce websites such as Paytm, Amazon, Flipkart, Snap deal etc. Available in different denominations such as 1gm, 2gm, 5gm, 10gm, etc., one can choose as per their budget. It is possible that the cost of these coins differ in different websites or in shops. It could be because the cost of these coins is based on the purity, fineness, weight, etc. If you are buying gold coins for investment, go with 24KT with 999.5 fineness.

Gold comes in different varieties such as hallmark gold, BIS 916 and KDM gold. Here is the brief explanation of these three varieties:

Hallmark Gold: The process of certifying the purity and fineness of gold is called hallmarking. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is responsible for hallmarking gold as well as silver jewellery. If the gold coin/Jewellery is certified by BIS, it ensures that the gold used in making adheres to the international standards of purity. Moreover, it gives consumers an assurance regarding authenticity and purity of the gold.

KDM Gold: Earlier, gold used to be combined with two or more metals to make delicate jewellery and Cadmium was used as filler to ensure its strength. This is where the term KDM gold came from. Now it is banned by BIS as it started to cause serious health issues for artisans working with it. Now cadmium is replaced with advanced solder metal such as Zinc and copper.

BIS 916 Gold: Gold is categorised on the basis of its purity such as 24K, 22K, and 18K, etc. If it is hallmarked, BIS will be added as a prefix. For e.g. 22K will be referred to as ‘BIS 916’ gold; 91.6 grams of pure 24 karat gold per 100 grams of alloy.

The purity of gold has always been one of the major concerns for buyers in India. To ensure consumers are not cheated when purchasing gold, they should know the components to look for while doing the same:

1. BIS Hallmark: Indicates that its purity is verified in one of their licensed laboratories
2. Purity in carat and fineness (corresponding to given caratage KT)

3. Hallmarking Centre’s mark
4. Jeweller’s mark

For Gold Coins

• BIS Mark
• Karat
• Fineness

Note:

• If you have bought the gold on or before 31st December 2016, apart from the above-mentioned components, there was an additional component that was hallmarked on the gold- year of hallmarking of jewellery denoted by a code letter. For e.g, code letter ‘A’ for year 2000, B for the year 2001, etc.
• The purity of the gold jewellery is mentioned in the laser engraving of a hallmark seal.
• Earlier hallmarking was optional, but with effect from 15th January, 2021, BIS has mandated all Jewellers across the nation to sell only hallmark gold Jewellery.

Certain aspects you should know about gold are:

• If one is investing in Sovereign Gold Bond for meeting a specific goal, make sure that goal is at least 5 years away because the tenure of the SGBs is 8 years with an exit option available from 5th year onwards
• It is advisable to always purchase hallmarked jewellery as it helps you to get better value at the time of selling
• Price of gold primarily depends on its purity and then net weight

In case of financial emergency, gold can easily be used as collateral for you to get a loan against gold jewellery in Karnataka. To avail gold loan, approach a bank or financial institution like Muthoot, Manappuram, etc. with your gold. They will decide the amount of loan to be sanctioned based on the purity and weight of the gold jewellery. In return, the borrower needs to pay the interest on gold