Gold Price Today in Siliguri – 7 Nov 2026, 4 AM IST

The figures in the live table are bullion reference rates for Siliguri, quoted per gram across 24 karat gold at 99.9 percent purity, 22 karat at 91.6 percent, 18 karat at 75 percent and 14 karat at 58.5 percent, refreshed every business day against MCX and IBJA benchmarks.

The bhari here means 11.6638 grams

West Bengal follows the eastern convention, where the traditional unit, called a bhari or tola, weighs 11.6638 grams rather than the 10 gram tola used across most of northern India. Older Siliguri jewellers and family documents commonly use this figure.

A bhari is roughly 17 percent heavier than the 10 gram tola used elsewhere, and section 50 sets out the full conversion.

What each karat is used for here

• 24 karat | 99.9 percent pure | coins and bars held as savings
• 22 karat | 91.6 percent pure, called 916 | most wedding and traditional Bengali jewellery
• 18 karat | 75 percent pure | diamond and stone settings, and lighter contemporary pieces
• 14 karat | 58.5 percent pure | lightweight everyday designs at a lower price point

What these rates include and exclude

• Included | the value of the gold itself at the stated purity
• Excluded | making charges, quoted as a percentage of gold value or per gram
• Excluded | wastage, where it is billed as a separate line
• Excluded | GST at 3 percent, applied at billing
• Excluded | stone value

One note for this city. Siliguri is the commercial gateway to Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan and India's Northeast, and its gold market runs on tea, tourism and cross border trade calendars as much as the national one. Section 24 sets it out.

The weight table converts today's per gram rate into the denominations Siliguri buyers transact in, from a single gram through 10 grams, 50 grams, 100 grams and a kilogram, at each of the four common purities.

Units used here

• Gram | the standard unit and the basis for every rate on this page
• Bhari or tola | 11.6638 grams | the traditional eastern Indian unit
• 10 gram unit | the published table unit nationwide | lighter than a bhari
• Troy ounce | 31.1035 grams | the international unit

A trade that grades tea leaf by leaf

Tea from the gardens around Siliguri and Darjeeling is graded and priced by precise leaf standard and auction lot weight, with nothing left to impression. A buyer here already understands that an exact figure decides the price.

Carry that same insistence into a jewellery counter: never accept a price before the weight itself is confirmed, in grams.

Net weight on any worked piece

On any stone set or filigree piece, insist the rate is applied to net gold weight in grams rather than to gross weight.

A single day's rate tells you very little. The last ten sessions tell you whether today's print sits at the top of a run, at the bottom of a pullback, or in the middle of a flat stretch.

Read three things from the ten day table. The net movement from the earliest session to today. The high and the low, which give the trading range. And whether daily changes are small and steady or large and alternating.

Where Siliguri's rate comes from

Siliguri is the principal commercial centre for North Bengal but not a bullion pricing centre in its own right. The reference comes through the Kolkata trade, and rates across Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and the surrounding towns move closely together.

West Bengal levies no additional state tax on gold beyond GST, though Siliguri's distance from Kolkata and its position near multiple international borders can add a modest transport and logistics premium to the local rate.

The gateway to the hills

Siliguri sits at the base of the Himalayan foothills and is the commercial and transport hub for Darjeeling, Sikkim, Bhutan and much of India's Northeast, a role often summarised locally as the city of tea, timber and tourism.

What the daily rate does not capture is which of these is paying out in a given month, and section 24 sets that out.

The trend table sets today's Siliguri rate against its opening and closing values over seven days, 30 days, three months, six months, the year to date and 12 months.

What each window tells you

The seven and 30 day windows capture sentiment: short term positioning, fund flows and reaction to news. The three and six month windows capture the macro cycle, principally the direction of real interest rates and the strength of the dollar. The 12 month and year to date windows capture the structural story, which in recent years has been sustained central bank accumulation alongside steady retail demand across Asia.

Longer windows are more reliable and less actionable. A 12 month gain confirms the asset did its job. It tells you nothing useful about next week's rate.

Tea, timber and tourism

Siliguri's economy is often summarised locally around three Ts: the tea gardens of the Terai and Dooars regions and the world famous Darjeeling estates nearby, a historic timber trade, and a large and growing tourism industry built on the city's role as the gateway to the hills.

The Chicken's Neck

Siliguri sits within the narrow Siliguri Corridor, often called the Chicken's Neck, that connects India's Northeast to the rest of the country and passes close to the borders of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. That strategic position has made the city a major transport and trading hub for the wider region.

A genuinely cosmopolitan buyer base

The jewellery market here serves Bengali, Nepali, Bhutia and other hill community buyers, alongside a substantial seasonal tourist flow, giving Siliguri a more varied bridal jewellery vocabulary than a single ethnic tradition would suggest.

The annual table shows the year end 24 karat rate per 10 grams across the last decade, with the change from the previous year.

What a decade of year end prices tells you

• The compounding is uneven | long flat stretches punctuated by sharp rallies, with most of the decade gain in a few years
• Entry point matters | buying at a rally peak has meant waiting years to recover in real terms
• Part of the gain is currency | a weaker rupee lifts the Indian price even when international gold is flat
• Duty changes create steps | a customs duty revision moves the retail rate independently of the world market
• Year end is one day | a single annual print hides the range the metal traded through that year

Long range figures are useful for context and poor for timing.

The comparison worth making here

A household with tea garden wages should set a decade of gold prices against a decade of plantation wage revisions, which move on a slower and more modest cycle. A tourism or transport business household should compare against a decade of tourist footfall and revenue instead.

In most comparisons gold has outpaced the alternative, which is the honest reason wedding expectations feel harder to meet than they did a generation ago.

The rate quoted in the Siliguri sarafa market is the last link in a chain that begins several hours earlier and several thousand kilometres away.

Step one: the international benchmark

Gold trades continuously in US dollars per troy ounce, anchored by the London Bullion Market Association price and by COMEX futures. Nothing in the Indian market is priced independently of it.

Step two: the rupee conversion

The dollar price is converted at the prevailing USD to INR rate. A weaker rupee raises the domestic price even when the international price has not moved.

Step three: duty and levies

Basic customs duty together with the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess applies to landed value, because India imports almost all the gold it consumes. West Bengal levies no additional state tax on gold beyond GST.

Step four: Kolkata to Siliguri

MCX futures and IBJA rates give the trade a national reference, and the Kolkata bullion market translates that into the working rate for North Bengal. Siliguri draws from Kolkata and supplies onward toward Darjeeling, Sikkim and the wider hill region.

The local jewellers' association publishes a daily figure that shops broadly quote in common, which is why several shops will give you near identical metal rates.

Step five: what is genuinely local

Not the metal price. The making charge and any wastage, which vary considerably between shops and between pieces, and which section 12 sets out.

Anyone claiming a materially cheaper rate on the gold itself is quoting something other than what you think, most often a lower purity or a piece that is not solid gold at all.

Seven forces account for almost all daily movement. The first four are global, the last three domestic.

Real interest rates. Gold pays no income, so it competes with interest bearing assets. When inflation adjusted yields fall, holding gold costs less in opportunity terms and the price tends to rise. This is the most reliable single driver.

The US dollar. Gold is priced in dollars, so a stronger dollar generally pushes the international price down and a weaker dollar lifts it.

Central bank demand. Reserve buying has been large and persistent in recent years and is far less price sensitive than retail demand.

Geopolitical and financial stress. Conflict, banking stress and sovereign risk push capital toward assets with no counterparty.

The rupee. A weaker rupee raises the Siliguri rate on its own, independent of any move in international gold.

Seasonal demand. Akshaya Tritiya is the largest single volume gold day of the Indian year, and Durga Puja and the wedding months carry the local buying.

Policy. Import duty revisions and GST decisions produce one off steps in the retail price with no connection to the international market.

The local patterns

Tea garden wage cycles and bonus payouts, typically timed around Puja. The peak tourist season, when hotel, transport and trade businesses see their strongest cash flow. And cross border trade settlement with Nepal and Bhutan, which follows its own rhythm.

None of these move the metal rate, which is national. All of them move how busy the sarafa market is and how negotiable a shop will be.

Gold supply is unusually inelastic. New mine output grows slowly and responds to a price rise only after several years, because discovery, permitting and construction typically runs well over a decade. A price spike cannot call forth new supply the way it can in most commodities.

Recycling is the flexible part. When prices rise sharply, households sell old jewellery and refined scrap returns to the market, cushioning the move.

Siliguri moves tea, timber and travellers, not gold

Siliguri's genuine economic strength runs through tea, historic timber trade and tourism and transport for the hill states. None of that output is gold, and every gram sold at a Siliguri counter is imported and refined elsewhere before it arrives.

Where Siliguri sits in the chain

At the retail and regional wholesale end. Bullion and finished stock arrive through Kolkata, and local goldsmiths make, alter and repair for a catchment stretching into Darjeeling, Sikkim and parts of the Northeast.

On the demand side

Central bank reserve buying has been the structural change of recent years, putting a firmer floor under the metal than retail demand alone would.

Nobody knows, and any page giving a confident target figure is guessing. What can be set out honestly is the conditions under which the rate would fall and those under which it would rise.

Conditions that would push the rate down

A sustained rise in real interest rates. A materially stronger dollar. A rupee that strengthens. A cut in import duty, which produces an immediate one off drop unrelated to the international market. A slowdown in central bank buying.

Conditions that would push it up

Falling real yields. A weaker rupee. Renewed geopolitical or banking stress. Continued reserve accumulation. A duty increase. And a heavy wedding season, which firms local premiums even when the national benchmark is unchanged.

Different constraints for different households

A tea garden worker's income arrives as regular wages plus a Puja bonus, on a schedule the household does not control. A tourism or transport business owner sees strongly seasonal cash flow tied to the travel calendar. Neither can simply wait for a better price the way a household with year round savings might.

Advice about waiting for a better level is genuinely difficult to act on for either group, and this page tries not to pretend otherwise.

What every household can control

The format, and the moment the making charge is paid. Buying sealed coins whenever money is genuinely available fixes the metal at that day's price. The jewellery can be commissioned later, in a quiet month, at a negotiated making charge.

916 is another way of writing 22 karat. It refers to 91.6 percent pure gold, with the remaining 8.4 percent made up of alloy metals that give the piece strength. On 18 karat the equivalent grade is 750, and on 14 karat it is 585.

The number is not marketing language. It is the purity grade stamped by a BIS recognised assaying and hallmarking centre, and it appears alongside the BIS logo and a six character HUID.

A trade that already grades before it pays

Tea from gardens near Siliguri is graded on leaf standard and cup quality by independent tasters before an auction price is set. A hallmark works on the same principle: an independently verified specification rather than a claim taken on trust.

Purity and weight are two separate checks

The hallmark tells you what proportion of the metal is gold. It says nothing about how much metal there is.

Verify purity through the HUID, and verify net gold weight in grams on the invoice. Two checks, not one.

And read what any stamp says

A gold grade is 916, 750 or 585. Silver carries its own marking where marked at all, and silver hallmarking is voluntary. Souvenir metalware sold to tourists carries nothing, as section 18 explains.

The karat scale measures gold content in parts of 24. 24 karat is gold with no meaningful alloy content, usually expressed as 99.9 percent purity and stamped 999.

Pure gold is soft. It bends under everyday pressure, scratches easily and will not hold a stone setting or a clasp securely. This is why almost no wearable jewellery is made in 24 karat, and why a seller offering 24 karat bangles should be treated with caution.

Where 24 karat belongs for a household

Savings. Coins and minted bars are made at 999 or 999.9 purity and carry a premium of a few percent rather than a making charge that can reach twenty five.

A 10 gram coin is a convenient modern unit, distinct from the traditional bhari, which makes tracking straightforward, and there is nothing in it to argue about.

For a household receiving a tea garden bonus or a strong tourist season's earnings, a coin is what you buy the week the money lands. Section 35 sets that out.

Buy the jewellery the family will actually wear and give. Build everything else in coins.

Jewellers here quote making charges either as a percentage of gold value or as a flat figure per gram, and across the trade the percentage range runs from around 8 percent on plain machine made pieces to 25 percent or more on fine filigree handwork.

That is the largest variable in what you pay and the only one genuinely open to negotiation.

Convert the two conventions before comparing

Divide the per gram figure by the gold rate per gram. At an illustrative 13,000 rupees per gram, 500 rupees per gram is roughly 3.8 percent and 1,200 rupees is roughly 9.2 percent. Ask which basis a shop is using, and ask separately whether wastage is a distinct line.

A worked example, line by line

The figures below use an illustrative 22 karat rate of 13,000 rupees per gram purely to keep the arithmetic readable. Substitute today's actual rate. The piece is a 20 gram 22 karat chain at 12 percent making.

• Gold value | 20 grams at 13,000 per gram | 2,60,000 rupees
• Making charges | 12 percent of gold value | 31,200 rupees
• Subtotal before tax | 2,91,200 rupees
• GST | 3 percent on the subtotal | 8,736 rupees
• Hallmarking | per piece charge plus tax | approximately 45 rupees
• Final billed amount | approximately 2,99,981 rupees

The same 20 grams across the range

• 8 percent, plain machine made | approximately 2,89,254 rupees
• 12 percent, standard work | approximately 2,99,981 rupees
• 18 percent, worked traditional | approximately 3,16,048 rupees
• 25 percent, fine filigree handwork | approximately 3,34,795 rupees

Roughly 45,000 rupees separates top and bottom on the same 20 grams of identical metal, decided entirely by which counter you stand at.

How GST is applied

In most retail invoices the jewellery is billed as a composite supply and 3 percent GST is charged on the combined value of gold and making. Where making is billed separately as job work, 5 percent can apply to that line instead. That matters when you supply your own gold to be remade, which section 39 covers.

A complete invoice protects you at purchase, at exchange, at pledge and at tax time.

The invoice checklist

• Purity | stated explicitly as 916, 750 or 585 | why it matters: it fixes the rate applied and the exchange value
• Gross weight in grams | total weight including stones | why it matters: it must not be the figure the gold rate is applied to
• Net gold weight in grams | the gold alone | why it matters: the only correct basis for the gold value and the making percentage
• HUID | six characters, per hallmarked item | why it matters: the only way to verify the piece in the BIS CARE app
• Gold rate applied | per gram, on that date | why it matters: without it the calculation cannot be reproduced
• Making charges | with the basis stated, percentage or per gram | why it matters: both conventions are used here
• Wastage | as its own line if charged | why it matters: folded into making it becomes invisible
• Stones | itemised by weight and value | why it matters: not credited on exchange
• GST | rate applied and the value it was applied to | why it matters: composite supply and job work are taxed differently
• Buyback and exchange terms | in writing | why it matters: the line most often omitted and the one that decides what you recover

Ask for a full tax invoice rather than an estimate slip, and photograph it before you leave.

Purity is not a quality ranking. Each grade exists because it suits a different job, and choosing by the highest number is the most common and most expensive mistake a first time buyer makes.

The four grades compared

• 24 karat | stamped 999 | 99.9 percent gold | durability very low | coins and bars | not suitable for wear | highest exchange value per gram
• 22 karat | stamped 916 | 91.6 percent gold | durability moderate | wedding and traditional Bengali jewellery | strong exchange value
• 18 karat | stamped 750 | 75 percent gold | durability high | diamond settings and contemporary daily wear | moderate exchange value
• 14 karat | stamped 585 | 58.5 percent gold | durability highest | lightweight everyday designs | lowest exchange value per gram

Why 916 dominates here

It takes fine filigree detail without cracking, which matters for the delicate Bengali gold work common in bridal jewellery, and it holds its value best on exchange.

That last property matters in a district where remaking family gold is routine and where jewellery is genuinely expected to be pledged between tea garden bonus payouts or tourism season peaks.

The honest note on lighter grades

14 and 18 karat let a household own a visible piece for less money, which is a real and legitimate reason to buy them.

Understand the trade. 14 karat holds a little over half the gold of 916 per gram and returns correspondingly less at exchange or pledge.

Where 18 karat earns its place

Diamond and stone settings, where a harder alloy grips the setting securely. If the stone is the point, buy 18 karat and put the saving into a better certified stone.

Verification takes under a minute and belongs before payment, not after.

Step one. Find the marks on the piece. They are small, usually on the inner band of a bangle, the clasp of a chain or the reverse of a pendant. You are looking for the BIS logo, a three digit purity grade of 916, 750 or 585, and a six character alphanumeric HUID.

Step two. Download the BIS CARE app, published by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Step three. Enter the HUID. The app returns the registered jeweller, the assaying centre, the purity and the item type. Check each field against the piece in your hand and against the invoice.

Step four. If the app returns nothing, or details that do not match, do not complete the purchase.

Do it at the counter

Complete every check before final payment, while you still have leverage and the shop is in front of you. That matters particularly if you have travelled down from Darjeeling, Kalimpong or Sikkim for one purchase.

On a bridal set, check every item

A set runs to many pieces, each carrying its own HUID, and sets are frequently assembled from more than one source. Verifying three of them is not verification.

Testing gold you already own

BIS recognised assaying centres carry out XRF testing for a nominal fee. It is non destructive and returns a purity reading in minutes, and it is the only reliable way to establish the true grade of an old family piece before offering it in exchange or at a pledge counter.

As the principal commercial centre for North Bengal, Siliguri has BIS recognised assaying and hallmarking access. Coverage in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Sikkim and the wider hill region is much thinner, which draws buyers down to Siliguri specifically for this reason.

The authoritative list of recognised centres, with addresses and registration numbers, is published by the Bureau of Indian Standards and revised as registrations are granted and withdrawn. Verify against the BIS list rather than any third party directory, including this page.

What a hallmarking centre actually does

It assays the metal to establish actual purity, applies the BIS mark and purity grade, and assigns the HUID linking the piece to a record. The centre is independent of the jeweller who sends the piece, and that independence is the entire basis of the system's credibility, in the sense section 10 describes for graded tea.

Why the trip down from the hills is worth it

A piece bought from a registered jeweller here carries a HUID that can be checked anywhere in India, by anyone with a phone, for as long as the piece exists.

A piece bought without one cannot be verified, cannot be exchanged cleanly at a registered shop, and cannot be pledged at a bank at a certain purity. For a household that expects to borrow against its gold, that last point is the one that bites.

On commissioned work

A piece made to order must reach a hallmarking centre and return before it is finished. Ask at the point of order how long that adds and build it into any wedding timeline.

Do not accept an unhallmarked piece on the understanding that hallmarking will follow after you have travelled home to the hills.

Combine the trip

If you are coming down to Siliguri to buy, bring the family's old gold and have it assayed the same day. The fee is nominal, and knowing your true purity before you negotiate an exchange turns an assessment into a conversation.

KDM refers to cadmium soldered gold. Cadmium was used historically as a soldering alloy because it melts at a low temperature and produces a clean joint, allowing a high purity claim for the finished piece.

Cadmium is toxic. Prolonged exposure is associated with serious kidney and respiratory harm, and the burden fell heaviest on the goldsmiths who worked with it daily. BIS no longer certifies KDM jewellery and it has been progressively replaced by safer solder alloys.

Current practice is hallmarked 916 gold with cadmium free solder. If a seller describes new stock as KDM, it is either old inventory or outside the hallmarking system, and neither is a reason to buy.

Where a household here meets it

In family jewellery brought in for exchange. Wedding sets from a parent's generation, and pieces made by a local goldsmith before hallmarking was mandatory.

Traditional Bengali filigree and worked gold carries considerable soldered and jointed construction, and on older pieces that solder can be a meaningful share of the whole. Such pieces can measure below their stated grade for purely technical reasons rather than through any dishonesty by the maker.

Have older heavily worked pieces assayed independently before offering them in exchange or at a pledge counter, so the figure is known before the conversation starts.

Siliguri's identity runs through tea, tourism and its gateway position, none of which involve gold, so it is worth being precise about what actually is.

Bengali and hill community bridal gold

The jewellery vocabulary here spans traditional Bengali filigree work, and pieces favoured by Nepali, Bhutia and other hill community buyers, including certain coin set and coral inspired designs. On all of these the checks are the standard ones: net gold weight in grams, the making basis, the hallmark on every piece. For any diamond involved, check it against the 4Cs of cut, colour, clarity and carat weight.

Tourist market souvenirs

As a major gateway for tourists heading to Darjeeling, Sikkim and the Northeast, Siliguri's markets carry a substantial trade in gold coloured trinkets, prayer flags and decorative items aimed at travellers. These are almost always plated or gilded rather than solid gold, carry no hallmark, and have no bullion value. Buy them as travel keepsakes, not as an investment.

Tea is tea

The tea grown and processed in this region has no connection to precious metal whatsoever. This page mentions it only to be complete about the local economy.

On diamonds

For any significant stone, insist on a report from a laboratory independent of the seller. Lab grown diamonds are chemically, physically and optically identical to mined diamonds and are graded on the same scale by the same laboratories. They are not simulants such as cubic zirconia or moissanite. Lucira's lab grown diamonds carry IGI or SGL certification.

Siliguri's jewellery trade is concentrated in the old commercial core near the main market streets, with further shops across the newer commercial roads, and the national chains present alongside.

Compare within the city

Get three quotes on one written specification in a single morning. On a 20 gram piece the spread between shops can run to 45,000 rupees, as section 12 shows.

On Kolkata

Reachable, though a considerable distance. The metal rate is effectively identical, so travel only for selection or a materially better making charge on a very large purchase.

Weigh that against having a local relationship for exchanges, repairs and resizes over the decades a set will be held.

Chains and family jewellers

The chains offer published terms, written buyback policies and consistent hallmarking. Established local jewellers often offer keener making charges and real knowledge of Bengali and hill community bridal forms.

Judge on the invoice rather than the frontage: is net gold weight stated, what is the making basis, is wastage separate, is every piece hallmarked, are the buyback terms written down.

Not from tourist market stalls

For actual gold, avoid the souvenir focused stalls aimed at travellers passing through. Section 18 explains why.

Online

For certified diamond jewellery and coins, online is a genuinely strong option, particularly for buyers in Darjeeling, Sikkim or the hills with thinner local hallmarking access. Lucira has no store in Siliguri, so buying from us here means ordering online with a 15 day money back window.

Siliguri sits at the base of the Himalayan foothills in North Bengal, and its gold market reflects a genuinely cosmopolitan gateway city rather than a single ethnic tradition.

Tea, timber and tourism

The city's economy is often summarised around the tea gardens of the Terai, Dooars and nearby Darjeeling, a historic timber trade, and a large tourism industry built on Siliguri's role as the gateway to the hills.

The Chicken's Neck

Siliguri lies within the narrow Siliguri Corridor connecting India's Northeast to the rest of the country, close to the borders of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, which has made it a major regional transport and trading hub.

A varied buyer base

The jewellery market serves Bengali, Nepali, Bhutia and other hill community buyers, alongside a substantial seasonal tourist flow.

Practical guidance for a first visit

Check the published rate. Get three quotes in one morning. Ask for net gold weight in grams, the making basis, and whether wastage is separate. Verify the HUID on every item. And take a full tax invoice, photographed.

Siliguri has a competent local trade and is the strongest hallmarking access point across a wide hill region, so this is a real comparison for local buyers and often a clear choice for buyers further into the hills.

Where the local market wins

Bengali filigree and hill community bridal forms, which local shops know and a national catalogue carries thinly.

Old gold exchange and remaking, which benefit from physical assessment.

And a relationship for repairs and resizes over the decades a set is held.

Where online is stronger

Certified diamond jewellery, where published independent grades remove a judgement that is otherwise hard to verify locally, particularly further up in the hills.

Coins, where there is nothing to judge by eye and the only variables are purity, seal and premium.

And published making charges, which give you a fixed external reference to carry into any counter, particularly useful given the thin hallmarking access outside Siliguri itself.

What to check before buying online

BIS hallmarking with HUID on every gold item. Independent certification for every diamond, from a laboratory you can verify. A stated return period and who pays return shipping. Published buyback and exchange terms. And a named entity with a verifiable address behind the website.

Apply the same list at a local counter. The standards do not relax because the shop is familiar.

The metal rate is effectively common across the city. Everything avoidable sits in the making charge, the weight and what the piece actually is.

Buying gold coloured tourist souvenirs believing they hold value. They are almost always plated or gilded.

Confusing a bhari figure with the 10 gram published table unit. Section 50 sets out the conversion.

Comparing a percentage making charge against a per gram quote without converting. Both conventions are used here.

Wastage folded into the making figure without mention. Ask which convention applies.

Buying at the first shop rather than the third.

Verifying a sample of a bridal set rather than every piece.

Accepting an estimate slip instead of a full tax invoice, which costs you the exchange record and the cost basis under section 40.

And spending an entire tea garden bonus or tourism season's earnings on worked jewellery in the busiest weeks, when coins now and a commission in a quiet month would have bought materially more metal. Section 24 explains.

Old gold exchange is routine here, and the established shops handle it regularly.

Pledge before you sell

Where the need is temporary, a gold loan raises money and keeps the jewellery. A sale cannot be reversed, and gold sold in a lean tourist season or between tea garden bonuses is rarely rebought once income picks up.

That is how household reserves disappear across a generation. Section 37 covers the lender options.

If you are exchanging

Exchange against a new purchase almost always returns better value than an outright cash sale.

Have the pieces assayed independently first, which as section 17 explains can legitimately establish a purity below the stamp on older filigree work.

The five questions

• What purity are you assessing at, and how was it measured
• What net gold weight are you crediting, after stones and any non gold components
• What percentage of the prevailing rate are you allowing, and is any melting deduction applied
• Is the credit the same for cash as against a purchase
• Are you valuing any silver components separately

Get the answers in writing before anything is melted, and take the pieces to a second shop first.

What you will not recover

The making charge, on any route, and on stone set pieces most of the stone value. Lucira's Old Gold Exchange credits 105 percent of prevailing value against a new purchase, handled at our Delhi NCR and Mumbai experience centres.

Siliguri's calendar layers a tea garden wage and bonus cycle with a strongly seasonal tourism economy, and using each deliberately is worth real money.

The Siliguri gold year

• April or May | Akshaya Tritiya | demand peak | the largest single volume gold day of the Indian year
• March to May and October to December | peak tourist seasons | strongest cash flow for hotel, transport and trade businesses
• September or October | Durga Puja | tea garden bonus payout | major festive and wage event combined
• October or November | Dhanteras and Diwali | demand peak | the national festive surge
• Winter | wedding season | demand high

For a tea garden household

The Puja bonus, Diwali and the winter wedding season land close together, which is the worst window to negotiate a making charge. Buy sealed coins the week the bonus arrives and commission jewellery separately in a quieter month.

For a tourism or transport business household

Income is strongly seasonal rather than a single annual event. Convert a strong season's earnings into coins as they come in rather than waiting for one large purchase, and commission jewellery in the quieter monsoon months when the tourist flow slows.

For a salaried household

A monthly salary means the calendar matters far less. Buy a small coin regularly and commission jewellery whenever the making charge is genuinely negotiable.

Bank lockers. Well provided across Siliguri through the public sector and private banks. Annual rental varies by locker size and branch, and availability can require a wait.

Bank liability for locker contents is limited by regulation and generally capped at a multiple of the annual rent rather than the value inside. Read the agreement rather than assuming full cover.

Home safes. A safe should be bolted into structure rather than free standing. Home insurance frequently caps jewellery cover at a low figure unless individual items are separately declared and valued.

For a household in the hills

A locker in Siliguri is only useful if you can reach it, and access from Darjeeling, Kalimpong or Sikkim depends on road conditions that can be disrupted by landslides during the monsoon. Ask at the nearest branch of a bank you already deal with, and keep anything you might need to pledge quickly somewhere accessible.

Flood and landslide risk

Siliguri and the surrounding Terai region experience periodic monsoon flooding, and the hill roads above are prone to landslides. Gold survives such disruption undamaged; documents, cash and road access do not.

The documents matter as much as the metal

Losing invoices and hallmark records means losing the ability to establish purity, weight and cost basis, and it weakens your position at a pledge counter. Photograph every document and keep a copy somewhere outside the house.

Keep an inventory

Record each piece with its net gold weight in grams, purity and HUID where it has one.

Monthly instalment schemes are offered by established local jewellers and by the national chains present in the city.

The common structure. You pay a fixed amount monthly for a defined term, most often eleven months. At maturity the jeweller adds a bonus, commonly equal to one instalment, redeemable against jewellery.

The genuine benefits. Enforced saving. Rupee cost averaging across the term. A bonus that effectively discounts the purchase. Often a making charge concession at redemption.

Whether it suits you depends on your income

A monthly scheme fits a salaried household well. It fits a tea garden household less well, since the money is a mix of regular wages and a lump sum Puja bonus, and it fits a tourism business household unpredictably, since income can be strongly seasonal.

Ask specifically what happens if an instalment is missed before joining.

Check the maturity date against the calendar

An eleven month scheme started around Akshaya Tritiya matures back into a similarly busy stretch. If you can choose when to start, choose so that maturity falls in a quieter month.

The question that decides the outcome

What making charge applies at redemption, and can the scheme be redeemed against plain gold and coins or only against selected stock. A bonus of one instalment in eleven is roughly nine percent, and against fine handwork at twenty five percent making it disappears immediately.

And check it is registered

Confirm the scheme is registered with the Registrar of Companies, which is a legal requirement for deposit taking schemes. You are an unsecured creditor of that jeweller for eleven months.

Lucira's Vault of Dreams follows a 9 plus 1 structure: pay ten monthly instalments and receive eleven months of value at redemption, on published terms rather than terms negotiated case by case.

Eight formats are available, and the choice between them decides how much metal a household ends up owning.

The eight formats compared

• Traditional Bengali or hill community jewellery | piece price | held physically | liquidity moderate | making 12 to 25 percent | best for wearing, giving and the wedding
• Plain gold jewellery | piece price | held physically | liquidity moderate | making from around 8 percent | best where the gold rather than the design is the point
• Stone set pieces | piece price | held physically | liquidity lower | stones credited at little or nothing | best for wearing only
• Coins | from half a gram | held physically | liquidity high | premium 2 to 8 percent | the strongest option for converting a bonus or a strong season
• Bars | from five grams | held physically | liquidity high | lowest premium | best for a larger lump sum
• Digital gold | from very small amounts | vaulted by provider | liquidity high | cost is the spread | useful for very small regular buying
• Gold ETF | one unit | held in demat | liquidity high in market hours | no making cost | genuinely accessible for salaried households
• Sovereign gold bond | one gram | demat or certificate | liquidity low until maturity | no making cost, pays interest | best for a long untouched hold

The structure that fits here

Buy the jewellery the family will actually wear and give. Convert each bonus or strong season into coins as it arrives.

Avoiding a twenty five percent making charge means owning meaningfully more metal for the same money, and coins pledge faster and at a cleaner valuation when income is disrupted.

On paper gold

ETFs and bonds remove the making charge entirely and suit the salaried population here well.

Neither can be pledged at a counter tomorrow morning. For the portion of the holding that exists as a household reserve, physical coins remain the answer.

Gold is simultaneously a commodity, a currency substitute and a cultural asset. The case for holding it rests on four properties.

It is nobody's liability. A bond depends on an issuer staying solvent. A deposit depends on a bank. Physically held gold depends on no one.

It behaves differently from equities, with low and sometimes negative correlation during market stress.

It preserves purchasing power over very long horizons, though it does not compound and generates no income.

And it is liquid and pledgeable within a day.

What gold does for a tea garden or tourism household

It carries a family through the lean season, and against a genuinely disrupted year, whether from a poor tea harvest, a slow tourist season, or a landslide cutting off road access to the hills.

Gold can be pledged in a morning without income proof, without a credit history and without an application process, and it can be redeemed when income picks up. That is a precise and sensible use of the asset, and this page will not describe it as unsophisticated.

Which is why the format matters

If gold is the household's bridge, every rupee spent on making charges is a rupee of bridge given away permanently.

Coins hold more metal for the same money and pledge at a cleaner valuation than a worked piece.

And the honest counterweight

Gold pays nothing while it waits, and pledging costs interest. A household with steady salaried income has cheaper long term options than a tea garden or tourism household typically does, and gold should sit alongside those options rather than replace them.

Safe is doing a lot of work in that question, and separating the two meanings answers it.

If safe means low risk of permanent loss, gold scores well. It cannot default, cannot be diluted by an issuer, and has never gone to zero in any currency.

If safe means low volatility, gold scores poorly. Double digit annual swings are normal, drawdowns of 20 percent or more have happened repeatedly, and the metal has spent multi year stretches below a previous peak.

The risks that dominate here

Making charges at the top of the range, which is a loss taken on day one and never recovered.

Buying gold coloured tourist souvenirs believing they hold value.

Converting an entire bonus or strong season's earnings into jewellery in the busiest weeks, which section 22 repeats as its most important warning.

And the rolling pledge, renewed season after season with interest accumulating, which is an expensive way of having sold the jewellery slowly.

The rolling pledge deserves its own warning

It is how households lose gold without ever deciding to sell it, and a strongly seasonal tourism income is exactly where it takes hold. If a pledge cannot be cleared when the season turns, the honest question is whether the problem is a timing gap or something structural that more borrowing will not fix. That conversation is far better had early, with a bank, than late with an informal lender.

The reasonable conclusion is that gold is a safe holding and an unreliable trade, and that here how you buy it matters more than the price on the day.

Siliguri property has grown steadily given the city's role as a regional hub, and across the wider district the comparison is with tea garden land and tourism related property in the hills.

Gold and land side by side

• Entry size | gold from one gram | land requires a large committed sum plus registration and stamp duty
• Liquidity | gold converts to cash in a day | land takes months and depends on finding a buyer
• Speed as collateral | gold pledges the same day | a land loan requires documents, valuation and weeks
• Income | gold produces none | tea garden and tourism property can produce steady returns in a good season
• Divisibility | gold can be sold or pledged in part | land fragments badly across generations
• Risk | gold is exposed to price only | hill property is exposed to landslide and access risk as well

On any purchase

Verify title, revenue records, encumbrance and the seller's right to sell through a qualified professional before money changes hands. Land tenure in parts of the hill region can carry additional complexity worth specific local legal advice.

The realistic answer

Land and property are the productive asset. Gold is the liquidity that lets a family hold them through a bad season. Selling land to buy gold is almost always the wrong way round.

Gold is best understood next to the assets it sits alongside rather than on its own.

Four assets compared

• Gold | no income | volatility moderate | inflation protection strong | crisis behaviour typically rises | role is reserve and collateral
• Equity | dividends and reinvested earnings | volatility high | inflation protection moderate over long periods | crisis behaviour falls hard | role is long term growth
• Deposits and small savings | fixed interest | volatility low | inflation protection weak | crisis behaviour stable | role is capital preservation
• Silver | no income | volatility very high | inflation protection moderate | industrial demand pulls both ways | role is a higher risk metals proxy

Do not save entirely in what you depend on

A household whose income depends on tourism, and whose savings are also tied to tourism property, is exposed twice to the same disruption, whether a bad season or a landslide cutting off road access.

Gold's price is set in London and Mumbai and pays no attention to what happened on the hill roads this season, which is precisely why it sits alongside tourism or tea income rather than duplicating its risk.

For a salaried household

Bank deposits and, where available, provident fund already provide a stable base, and gold should sit alongside those rather than substitute for them.

On silver

Silver has a genuine place in Bengali and hill community households and is a real precious metal, unlike a plated tourist souvenir. Rates across West Bengal track Kolkata closely, so today's Kolkata silver rate is a reliable reference here too. It is worth a small fraction of gold per gram and swings harder, because roughly half its demand is industrial.

The comparison within gold

Jewellery against coins. Two households spend the same sum. One holds a worked piece having paid up to twenty five percent in making. The other holds several percent more metal, more easily pledged.

All the gold ever mined amounts to a surprisingly small quantity. Estimates from the World Gold Council place it at somewhat over two hundred thousand tonnes, a volume that would fit inside a cube a little over twenty metres on each side.

Roughly half of that exists as jewellery. The remainder splits between private investment holdings in bars and coins, official reserves held by central banks and the International Monetary Fund, and industrial use.

Annual mine production adds only a small percentage to the existing stock each year, and that rate has been broadly flat despite higher prices. This is the structural reason gold holds value: the quantity in existence cannot be expanded quickly by decision, unlike a currency.

Tea is the opposite kind of asset

Tea is plucked fresh each flush, processed, and sold within the season, with no accumulated global stock the way there is with gold. Every year's harvest stands on its own.

Gold is the reverse. Almost every gram mined across history still exists somewhere, worn, melted and reworked repeatedly, which is what makes it a store of value across generations in a way a seasonal crop cannot be.

The metal is never used up

Gold is worn, melted, reworked and worn again. A grandmother's set becomes a granddaughter's, remade to current taste, with the metal carried across intact. Every gram survives and only the design is lost.

Every gram sold in Siliguri today is imported and refined before it reaches a counter here.

Gold's long run return in rupee terms has been respectable, but the shape of it is what matters and it is rarely explained.

The returns are lumpy rather than steady. Long flat periods are followed by short sharp rallies, and most of the multi decade gain is concentrated in a small number of years. Entry point therefore matters a great deal.

Part of the Indian return is currency. When the rupee weakens against the dollar, the rupee gold price rises even if international gold is unchanged, so a headline rupee return overstates what the metal itself did.

The entry cost dominates on a seasonal purchase

Making charges are a load, exactly as a front loaded fee would be, and they are never returned.

A coin buyer pays perhaps four percent. A buyer of worked jewellery pays twenty five. At a long run appreciation of eight to ten percent a year, that gap alone is two to three years of returns given away at the counter.

And the return that is not a return

A family that pledged the same gold every year across a decade, paying interest each time, has not participated in the gold price in any useful sense. The interest paid may well exceed the appreciation.

The sober conclusion is that gold has preserved purchasing power reliably and generated wealth unreliably, and that here the making charge matters more to the outcome than the metal price does.

Three routes to owning gold as an asset rather than an ornament, with genuinely different characteristics.

Physical, ETF and sovereign gold bond compared

• Physical gold | held by you | entry cost is making charge or coin premium | storage cost is locker and insurance | liquidity high | earns nothing | can be worn, given and pledged same day
• Gold ETF | held in demat | entry cost is brokerage | ongoing cost is the expense ratio | liquidity high through market hours | earns nothing | requires an account and a working connection
• Sovereign gold bond | demat or certificate | no entry premium | no storage cost | liquidity low before maturity | pays fixed interest on the invested amount | availability depends on issuance windows

Gold ETFs remove making charges and storage in one step. Sovereign gold bonds pay interest on top of tracking the price, with historically favourable tax treatment on redemption at maturity.

Genuinely available here

Banking and broking access in Siliguri is good, particularly for the salaried population. For the portion of savings that is genuinely long term and will never be worn or pledged quickly, removing the making charge entirely is a straightforward gain.

The limitation that decides it

Neither can be pledged at a counter tomorrow morning. For a household whose gold exists specifically to bridge a lean tourist season or a disrupted access route to the hills, physical coins remain the answer for that portion.

Coins are the format this page recommends most strongly, and with income arriving through irregular bonuses and seasonal tourism earnings rather than a single steady salary for many households, the case for a simple repeatable purchase is stronger than usual.

What to buy. 999 or 999.9 purity, from a recognised mint or an established jeweller, tamper evident sealed with an assay certificate. Denominations run from half a gram through 1, 2, 5, 8 and 10 grams, with larger bars available.

A 10 gram coin is a convenient modern denomination, distinct from the traditional bhari, and makes tracking straightforward.

For a large Puja bonus, a bigger coin or a bar is more efficient. For smaller, more frequent tourism season earnings, a smaller coin may suit better.

What to check. That the coin is sealed and the seal intact, since breaking it reduces exchange value. That the invoice states purity, weight in grams and mint. And that the seller will buy it back or exchange it toward jewellery, on what basis.

The bank caution. Several banks sell gold coins and most will not buy them back. If you buy from a bank you will need a jeweller to exit.

Three reasons they suit this market

They can be bought in minutes whenever a bonus or a season's earnings arrive, fixing the metal price without negotiating a design decision on the spot.

There is no ambiguity in them. No design, no wastage, no stones.

And a sealed certified coin pledges cleanly and quickly, because a lender reads purity off a seal rather than assessing a worked piece.

The condition

A jeweller who will exchange coins toward jewellery on stated terms, agreed in writing before you start.

Gold futures are exchange traded contracts to buy or sell a fixed quantity of gold at a set price on a future date. In India they trade on MCX, and MCX prices are one of the references the trade uses to set the daily rate.

Who actually uses them. Jewellers and bullion dealers hedge inventory, which is genuine commercial risk management for a firm carrying stock. Traders take a leveraged view. Retail savers have no reason to touch them.

Why they are unsuitable for a household. Futures trade on margin, so a small adverse move can require additional funds at short notice and can wipe out the position entirely. Contracts expire, so a long term view requires rolling positions and paying the cost of doing so.

A note on tea futures

Larger tea estates and traders may already deal in forward contracts for their crop, which is genuine hedging for a firm with actual stock to protect. A household that simply wants to own some gold has no such position and should buy the metal directly rather than trade a contract on it.

The caution that matters more

Anyone promising assured high returns on gold, commodities or any deposit is describing something that does not exist.

These offers travel through local and community networks and arrive by phone and messaging application, and a personal introduction is a reason for more care rather than less. Check registration with the relevant regulator before parting with anything, and be particularly careful with any arrangement where gold is handed over to someone for safekeeping or a promised return.

What to do instead

A recurring deposit at a bank you already use, a post office scheme, or a coin bought whenever there is a genuine surplus.

Borrowing between income cycles is normal here rather than exceptional, and which route you use decides how much it costs.

For a tea garden worker

Check whether any employer or estate welfare provisions offer an advance before going to a gold loan counter. These vary considerably by estate.

For a tourism or transport business household

A working capital loan against business cash flow, where available, is designed for exactly the seasonal gap this trade experiences and is frequently cheaper than pledging jewellery.

For a salaried household

A provident fund advance, a loan against a deposit or a salary backed personal loan is usually cheaper than a gold loan and leaves the jewellery untouched.

The options compared

• Employer advance or business working capital loan | designed for the specific need | often the cheapest route where available
• Provident fund advance or loan against deposit | your own money | cheapest of all where available
• Bank gold loan | low rate among gold options | more documentation | slower disbursal | strongest regulatory protection
• Regulated NBFC gold loan | rate above a bank | minimal documentation, no income proof | disbursal often within the hour | RBI regulated with a defined auction procedure
• Informal lending | no regulated terms, no auction notice, no recourse | the most expensive and least protected

Before you sign

Compare at least two regulated lenders. Check the valuer records net gold weight in grams and the purity assessed. Check the repayment structure, fees and prepayment charge. Read the auction terms including notice period. Borrow well below the maximum loan to value, and keep the pledge receipt where more than one family member can find it.

A small but genuine share of annual gold demand comes from industry rather than jewellery or investment.

Electronics is the largest industrial use. Gold conducts electricity well and, unlike copper or silver, does not corrode or tarnish, which makes it the material of choice for connectors, bonding wires and contacts in devices where a failed connection is unacceptable. Medicine and dentistry use it for biocompatibility, and aerospace for reflective coatings.

Why tea loses freshness and gold does not

Processed tea loses aroma and flavour with time and exposure to air and moisture, which is exactly why it is graded, packed and sold quickly rather than stockpiled for years.

Gold faces no such decay. It is chemically inert and does not degrade at all. A gold piece stored for eighty years comes out as it went in, which is most of the reason households store long term value in gold rather than in any agricultural product, however prized when fresh.

Recovery and price sensitivity

Industrial gold demand is largely price insensitive at small per unit quantities, because the quantity per device is tiny and the alternative is an unreliable connection.

Tax on gold arises at three points: when you buy it, when you sell it, and in certain cases when you receive it as a gift.

At purchase. GST applies to gold jewellery at 3 percent, in most retail invoices on the combined value of gold and making as a composite supply. Where making is billed separately as job work, 5 percent can apply to that line. TCS may also apply on high value cash purchases above the prescribed threshold. West Bengal levies no additional state tax on gold beyond GST.

The job work point

If you supply your own gold to a goldsmith and pay only for labour, that is job work rather than a supply of jewellery. GST at 5 percent applies to the making charge rather than 3 percent to the whole value, and you are not paying GST on the metal again.

That is exactly what happens under the approach in section 24. Buy coins as bonuses or season earnings arrive, paying GST once on the metal. Supply them to a goldsmith in a quiet month and pay 5 percent on labour alone.

Ask for it explicitly and get a job work invoice rather than a sale invoice.

On wage and business income

Wage income and business income are taxed differently, and a household funding a purchase from tea garden wages is in a different position from a tourism business owner reporting seasonal business income.

Keep the sale records and bank credits alongside the jewellery invoice, whichever source funded the purchase.

At sale

Any gain is taxed as capital gains. The rate and the holding period separating short term from long term have been revised in recent Union Budgets, and treatment now differs between physical gold, gold funds and sovereign gold bonds. Making charges formed part of your cost of acquisition, claimable only if the invoice states them separately.

On gifts and on holding

Gold received from specified close relatives is generally exempt. Gold received from others above a prescribed value can be taxable as income from other sources. Gifts received on the occasion of the recipient's marriage are generally exempt.

India has no wealth tax on gold at present and no legal limit on how much a household may own. Tax rules have changed more than once in recent Finance Acts, so treat this as general orientation rather than advice.

The calculation itself is simple. The complications are documentary.

Start with the sale consideration, meaning what you actually received. Subtract the cost of acquisition, meaning what you originally paid, including making charges and GST where they formed part of the cost. Subtract any expenditure incurred wholly in connection with the sale. What remains is the capital gain.

Whether that gain is short term or long term depends on the holding period, and the threshold has been revised in recent Budgets.

Making charges are part of your cost

On a piece bought at 20 percent making, that charge formed part of what you paid and therefore part of your cost of acquisition. Omitting it overstates your gain and you pay tax you did not owe.

The deduction is only available if the invoice states making separately, which is why section 13 insists on a full tax invoice.

The advantage of buying coins as income arrives

A household accumulating coins at each bonus or season peak builds a complete, dated, documented cost record automatically, since each purchase has its own invoice showing weight, purity and price on that date.

Exchange is a disposal

Exchanging old jewellery against a new purchase is a disposal of the old pieces and can give rise to a capital gain even though no cash reached you. Keep the exchange documentation showing what was credited, at what weight and rate.

Inherited gold

Inheritance itself is not a taxable transfer. When you sell, the cost of acquisition is generally taken as the cost to the previous owner, and the holding period generally includes theirs, which usually works in the seller's favour.

This section is general information and not tax advice.

Paper gold is taxed differently from physical gold, and the differences have been revised repeatedly, so this section describes the structure rather than fixed numbers.

Gold ETFs and gold mutual funds. Gains are treated as capital gains, with the classification between short term and long term determined by the holding period applicable in the year of sale. Both threshold and rate have been amended in recent Finance Acts. There is no GST on buying units, which is one structural advantage over physical purchase.

Sovereign gold bonds. Two separate streams. The interest paid on the invested amount is taxable as income in the year received. The capital gain on redemption at maturity has historically been exempt for individual holders, which is the single most attractive feature of the instrument. Gains on secondary market sale before maturity are treated differently.

Digital gold. Generally taxed in the same manner as physical gold. Confirm the treatment with the provider.

Where the slab rate lands

Bond interest is taxable at slab rate, so its after tax value depends on the household's other income. For a household whose income is modest, the coupon is worth more after tax than it would be to a salaried buyer in a higher slab.

The constraint remains the lock in rather than the tax. Money that cannot be reached does not help when a season disappoints or road access is disrupted, and that should decide the format before the tax treatment does.

Because these rules move, check the current position for the relevant financial year. This is general information rather than advice.

Siliguri's jewellery trade grew from a small trading post into the principal commercial gateway for a large and diverse hill and border region.

A trading post first

Siliguri's position at the base of the hills made it a natural staging point for trade heading up toward Darjeeling and Sikkim, and a jewellery trade grew here for the ordinary reason such trades grow anywhere: money needs somewhere to be converted and stored.

Tea transforms the region

Colonial era tea cultivation across the Terai, Dooars and Darjeeling hills built an economy around plantation wages and seasonal harvest cycles that has shaped local gold buying patterns for well over a century.

The corridor becomes strategic

Independence and subsequent border arrangements made the Siliguri Corridor a nationally significant connection to the Northeast, cementing the city's role as a transport and trading hub for a wide and varied region.

Tourism arrives

Growing domestic and international tourism to Darjeeling, Sikkim and the Northeast added a further, strongly seasonal layer to the city's economy in recent decades.

What that leaves a buyer

A trade with genuine familiarity across Bengali and hill community bridal forms, the strongest hallmarking access in the region, and a customer base whose income arrives in genuinely different patterns depending on which part of the local economy a household belongs to.

Siliguri's market serves the city and a genuinely wide catchment, reaching into Darjeeling, Kalimpong, parts of Sikkim and the surrounding Terai and Dooars towns.

Who is buying

Tea garden households, buying around wage cycles and the Puja bonus. Tourism and transport business households, buying through their strongly seasonal earning periods. Salaried households, buying more evenly across the year. And families from Darjeeling, Sikkim and the hills coming down for a substantial purchase and for hallmarking access unavailable closer to home.

What that produces

A market with a genuinely diverse demand base across ethnicities and income patterns, a strong seasonal tourism pulse layered onto the national festive calendar, and a real trade in gold coloured souvenirs aimed at travellers that must not be confused with actual gold.

The consequence for reading this page

Two things matter more here than the daily rate. Whether you have converted a bhari quote correctly, and whether a gold coloured item bought near a tourist market is genuinely gold. Sections 50 and 18 answer those.

Volume and value tell different stories, and this market's genuinely diverse demand base makes it more resilient than a single industry town.

By weight, average purchases have fallen, since gold has risen faster than tea garden wages and most household incomes. By value, spending has held up reasonably well, cushioned by the growth in tourism and transport business income and by the salaried population that a purely plantation economy would lack.

How households are adapting

Lighter construction and more 18 karat for daily wear among salaried buyers. More remaking of family gold. Growing use of coins bought whenever a bonus or a strong season arrives, and, among the salaried population, paper gold.

What is genuinely improving

Mandatory hallmarking, which has done most for the buyer with the least leverage, and better access to national retailers and published pricing than this district had two decades ago, particularly valuable given thin hallmarking access further into the hills.

What has not changed

The Puja bonus still funds a large share of autumn buying. The tourist season still shapes when tourism business households have money to spend. And gold is still what a household turns to when income is disrupted, whether by a bad season or a blocked hill road.

Rates across Indian cities are set from the same national benchmark and then diverge slightly. On a typical day the spread between major cities is modest, commonly a hundred to a few hundred rupees per 10 grams.

Four things create the local difference

Distance from the importing and refining centres, which adds transport and insurance. Local dealer inventory cost. How hard local demand presses on local supply. And any state level tax, of which West Bengal has none on gold beyond GST.

Siliguri draws through Kolkata

Stock arrives via Kolkata, a considerable distance, and Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and the surrounding towns track that reference closely. For anyone comparing metals rather than cities, today's Kolkata platinum rate is a reliable statewide reference too, since platinum trades on national rather than local drivers.

One comparison that misleads

Confusing the traditional bhari of 11.6638 grams with the modern 10 gram unit used on the published table. That is roughly 17 percent more metal behind an identical word, and section 50 sets it out.

What varies far more

The making charge, from around 8 percent to 25, plus whether wastage is separate, plus whether a piece bought near a tourist market is solid gold at all.

Every city rate published on this site derives from the same national benchmark set by MCX and IBJA references. What varies between cities is the local physical premium, not the underlying price of gold.

Two consequences follow. A difference of a few hundred rupees per 10 grams between two cities is normal. And a large apparent difference between two published sources for the same city usually reflects a difference in what is being quoted, most often a pre tax bullion reference against a retail rate that already includes local premium.

When comparing across sources, check four things: the purity quoted, the unit, whether GST and making are included, and the timestamp.

The unit map

• Gram | the standard unit and the only one worth comparing in | all rates on this page are per gram
• Bhari or traditional tola | 11.6638 grams | used in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam
• 10 gram tola | most of northern and western India | the same as the published table unit
• Sovereign or pavan | 8 grams | Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala
• Troy ounce | 31.1035 grams | the international unit quoted in the financial press

Siliguri sits in bhari territory, so a quote from Delhi or Mumbai in the lighter 10 gram unit needs converting before comparison.

The rule

Convert every quote to rupees per gram before comparing it to anything, and require every invoice to state net gold weight in grams.

Rates for other cities, including Kolkata, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru, are published on their own pages on this site and updated on the same daily cycle.

India produces very little gold domestically and imports the overwhelming majority of what it consumes.

Who may import

Import is restricted to authorised entities: nominated banks, agencies designated by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, and qualified jewellers operating through the International Financial Services Centre route. Individuals cannot import gold commercially.

Basic customs duty together with the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess is levied on landed value. A duty change flows into the retail rate almost immediately and nationwide.

Buy through the documented trade

Gold offered privately, at a price meaningfully below the market, without a GST invoice and without a HUID, should be refused, and this caution matters particularly given Siliguri's position near multiple international borders, where informal cross border movement of goods is a known local issue.

Undocumented gold cannot be verified for purity. It cannot be exchanged cleanly at a registered jeweller. It cannot be pledged at a bank at a certain purity, which for a household that expects to pledge is the loss that matters most. And the legal exposure attaches to whoever is found holding it, which carries particular weight in a border region.

An established registered jeweller will give you a fair price on documented metal, and every protection described on this page depends on that documentation existing.

Personal allowances for travellers

Returning Indian residents may bring limited quantities of gold jewellery within specified allowances that vary by gender and duration of stay abroad, with duty payable above the threshold. These are revised periodically.

Confirm the current position with customs before travelling, declare rather than risk it, and keep the receipt since it establishes your cost basis under section 40.

Government schemes have been introduced periodically to bring privately held household gold into the formal economy, allowing holders to earn a return on idle metal rather than paying to store it.

The general structure. Gold is deposited with a participating bank, assayed for purity, and held for a defined term. The depositor earns interest denominated in gold. At maturity, redemption is available in gold or cash depending on the scheme and tenure chosen.

Scheme terms, participating banks and tenure options have changed since introduction, and some variants have been discontinued or restructured. Check current availability directly with the bank rather than relying on any published summary, including this one.

Why it fits few households here

For a tea garden or tourism household the gold is not idle. It is the bridge described in section 28, and locking it into a fixed term removes exactly the property that makes it useful against a lean season or disrupted road access.

Deposited jewellery is also melted for assaying and the specific piece does not return, which rules out anything inherited or of ritual significance.

Remaking is the better route

Remake when a piece is plain, damaged beyond sensible repair, or in a form nobody will wear. You keep every gram, you lose only the design, and the job work GST treatment in section 39 makes the arithmetic strongly favourable.

Do it in a quiet month, when goldsmiths have capacity and making charges are negotiable, rather than around Puja or Diwali.

Before you hand anything over, have the pieces assayed independently, agree the making charge and any wastage in writing, and get a job work invoice rather than a sale invoice.

Work this out before you reach the counter.

The formula

• Step 1 | Establish the making charge | percentage or per gram, and ask whether wastage is separate
• Step 2 | Net gold weight | gross weight minus stones, in grams
• Step 3 | Gold value | net gold weight multiplied by today's rate for that purity
• Step 4 | Making charges | gold value multiplied by the percentage, or grams multiplied by the per gram figure
• Step 5 | Wastage | if charged separately, as a stated percentage of gold value
• Step 6 | Stones | stated separately by weight and value
• Step 7 | GST | 3 percent applied to the sum of the lines above
• Add | hallmarking charge, a small fixed amount per piece

Worked example

A 20 gram 22 karat piece at an illustrative 13,000 rupees per gram. Gold value 2,60,000 rupees.

• At 8 percent making | approximately 2,89,254 rupees
• At 12 percent making | approximately 2,99,981 rupees
• At 18 percent making | approximately 3,16,048 rupees
• At 25 percent making | approximately 3,34,795 rupees

For comparison, 20 grams held as sealed 999 coins at a 4 percent premium comes to roughly 2,78,408 rupees with GST at the same illustrative rate. Against the 25 percent row that is over 56,000 rupees difference for the same twenty grams.

Run the calculation on the estimate before you pay. If it does not reconcile, check the weight basis first, then whether wastage has been added.