How IBJA gold rates are set, and why jewellers quote more

The gold rate on this site, on most news sites and on the boards outside many shops comes from one source: the India Bullion and Jewellers Association, IBJA. Knowing what that rate is — and what it is not — explains most of the differences you see between the “gold rate today” and the price on a bill.

What IBJA publishes

IBJA is the trade body of bullion dealers and jewellers. On each business day it publishes a rate per 10 grams for gold of 999, 995, 916, 750 and 585 fineness and a rate per kilogram for 999 silver, in two sessions: an opening (AM) rate around midday and a closing (PM) rate in the late afternoon. The rates are national — there is one IBJA rate for the country, not one per city — and they are exclusive of GST and of any making charge.

The figures are a trade benchmark: a reference the members and the market use for pricing, settlement and valuation. They are not a price at which IBJA itself buys or sells.

Who relies on it

The clearest sign of the benchmark’s standing is that the Reserve Bank of India uses it. RBI’s FAQ on the Sovereign Gold Bond scheme states that the issue price of each tranche is the simple average of the closing price of 999 gold published by IBJA over the last three business days of the week before the subscription period, and that the redemption price is the same average over the three business days before the redemption date. The SGB pages on this site show every issue and redemption price RBI has published, and they line up with the IBJA closes to the rupee.

Banks, lenders valuing gold for loans, insurers and courts also cite IBJA rates, for the same reason: it is published daily, in writing, by a body that answers to the trade.

How this site shows it

Every gold page here shows the IBJA rate with the session it belongs to (AM or PM), the date IBJA published it, and the time we fetched it. The 24K rate is the 999 figure per 10 grams; the 22K rate is the 916 figure; per-gram rates are those figures divided by ten. On weekends and holidays IBJA publishes nothing, so the pages show the last session with a line saying so; a weekday morning shows the previous close until the AM rate arrives. Nothing on the pages is estimated or carried forward silently — every number has its date and session next to it.

Why the shop rate is higher

A jeweller’s board rate for 22K is normally above the IBJA 916 figure. The difference has three parts:

1. Margin on the metal. The shop buys gold at or near the benchmark and sells it a little above. This is the shop’s profit on the gold itself, before any work.
2. Local variation. Some city bullion associations publish their own board rate, usually a small premium or discount to the national figure that reflects local supply and demand. Where a city has such a local rate, this site shows it alongside IBJA’s and says which is which.
3. Then the making charge and GST, which are not part of any rate at all; they are added to the gold value on the bill, as the jeweller’s bill guide explains.

So “the gold rate today” is a benchmark; the price of a piece is the benchmark plus margin, plus work, plus tax. Comparing shops means comparing their per-gram rate against the same IBJA figure for the same session, and then comparing making charges separately.

What moves the rate

The IBJA figure follows the international gold price and the rupee–dollar exchange rate, both of which change all day; the two daily sessions are snapshots of that. The 30-day tables and the archive on this site show how the benchmark has moved, session by session; what it will do next is not something the benchmark, or this site, can tell you.