They are two different charges. Paying both on the same piece is the most common way a Nagpur gold quote quietly grows without the making charge percentage ever changing.
Updated: 28 July 2026 · By Rajesh Londe, 3rd generation jeweller and BIS certified valuer, Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds Nagpur
Making charge is labour. It pays the karigar for forming, soldering, setting and finishing, plus workshop overhead and hallmarking. It is quoted either as a percentage of the gold value or as rupees per gram of the piece. It is a legitimate charge and every jeweller in India has one.
Wastage is weight. The argument for it is that a small quantity of gold is genuinely lost during manufacture, in filings, polishing dust and solder. That loss is real, but it is small, and it is a cost of production in exactly the way electricity and tool wear are. In a well run workshop it runs about 0.5 to 2 percent of the gold worked, and on machine made chain it is close to nothing.
The problem is not that wastage exists. The problem is that a production cost of about 1 percent is often billed to the customer at 5 to 12 percent, on top of a making charge that already covers the cost of production. That gap is not metal. It is margin wearing the name of metal.
Both bills below are for the same 20 gram 22K plain bangle, on the same day, at the same live Nagpur gold rate of Rs 13,460 per gram (28 July 2026), and both quote the same 12 percent making charge. The only difference is a wastage line.
| Line on the bill | Itemised bill, no wastage | Bill with 8 percent wastage |
|---|---|---|
| Weight billed | 20.00 g | 21.60 g |
| Gold value at Rs 13,460/g | Rs 2,69,200 | Rs 2,69,200 |
| Wastage at 8% (1.60 g of extra gold) | None | Rs 21,536 |
| Making charge at 12% | Rs 32,304 | Rs 32,304 |
| Subtotal | Rs 3,01,504 | Rs 3,23,040 |
| GST at 3% on total | Rs 9,045 | Rs 9,691 |
| Total payable | Rs 3,10,549 | Rs 3,32,731 |
Difference: Rs 22,182 on a single 20 gram bangle, and the customer comparing only making charge percentages would conclude the two shops were priced identically. This is why comparing the making charge line alone tells you very little.
What we do at Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds. There is no wastage line on any Londe bill. You are billed for the weight the piece actually shows on the scale, and the labour is inside the making charge percentage, which is printed on the invoice as its own line. You can weigh the piece in front of you and check the arithmetic before you pay.
Walk in to Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds, Sitabuldi, Modi Number 2, opposite Datta Mandir, Nagpur 440012, and ask the counter to break any quote into weight, rate and making charge. Call 090755 12053. Open 11 AM to 8:30 PM, all 7 days.
Search for GST on gold making charges and you will find 3 percent and 5 percent asserted with equal confidence. Both numbers are real, and they belong to two different treatments. Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds bills a flat 3 percent on the total invoice value, gold and making together, on every piece.
The common treatment for a finished piece bought across a counter is a composite supply taxed at 3 percent on the total invoice, gold and making together. The 5 percent figure is the job work rate, which applies when a customer brings their own gold to a karigar and pays only for labour. Some jewellers apply the job work logic to the making line of a finished piece and bill 3 percent on metal plus 5 percent on making.
In rupees the gap is small. On our 20 gram example the two treatments differ by roughly Rs 646. The useful part is not the rate, it is the test: the tax should appear as its own line, and the counter should be able to tell you which treatment the invoice uses. A bill that folds tax invisibly into a single round number is the thing to push back on, whichever percentage it used.
Any jeweller comfortable with their pricing will answer all four across the counter without hesitation. Reluctance on question one or two is the signal worth acting on.
Buyers usually push hardest on the making charge, because it is the line they can see. It is often the wrong target.
On plain machine made pieces the making charge is genuinely thin already, roughly 8 to 12 percent, and there is little room in it. On handcrafted Vidarbha and Maharashtrian work the labour content is real and heavy, and asking for a deep cut usually means being quietly moved to a lighter or less finished piece rather than getting the same piece cheaper.
The lines with real money in them are the billed weight and the metal rate. Those two decide most of what you pay, and neither is usually discussed. Fix those and the making charge argument matters much less.
For the full percentage ladder by design category, see our gold making charges in Nagpur page, which recalculates every rupee figure from the live daily rate.
There is a second cost to wastage that shows up years later. When you exchange or sell the piece back, you are credited for the gold that is actually in it. You are not credited for the wastage grams you were billed for, because those grams were never in the bangle.
So an 8 percent wastage line is not only Rs 21,536 more at purchase on our 20 gram example. It is also 1.60 grams of gold you paid for and can never exchange, at any jeweller, ever. Making charges are lost on exchange too, and that is normal and true everywhere. Wastage is lost on top of it.
At Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds, old 22K and 24K gold from any jeweller in India is exchanged at zero deduction, valued at the same rate we sell at, with XRF purity testing done in front of you in five to ten minutes. Details on the gold exchange in Nagpur page.
Making charge is the labour cost of turning gold into jewellery, quoted as a percentage of gold value or as rupees per gram. Wastage is a separate line that adds extra gold weight to what you are billed for. They are not the same charge under two names, and a bill that carries both is charging you twice for one manufacturing process, once as labour and once as metal. At Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds in Nagpur there is no separate wastage line on any bill.
At Londe Jewellers Gold & Diamonds it is a flat 3 percent on the total invoice value, gold and making together, because a finished piece sold across the counter is a composite supply. The 5 percent figure is the job work rate, which applies when you supply your own gold and pay only for labour, and some jewellers apply it to the making line of a finished piece. The difference is a few hundred rupees on a typical bill. What matters is that the tax appears as its own line and the counter can tell you which treatment they used.
Real manufacturing loss is about 0.5 to 2 percent and on machine made chain it is close to nothing. Wastage quoted to customers in the Nagpur market commonly runs 5 to 12 percent. Anything above 2 percent is a price increase rather than a metal loss, and is worth treating as one.
No. Exchange credits the gold actually present in the piece. Wastage grams were never in it, so they cannot be returned. Making charges are also not returned on exchange, at any jeweller. At Londe Jewellers, old 22K and 24K gold from any jeweller in India is exchanged at zero deduction at the same rate we sell at.
Bring a bill and we will read it with you. If you have a quote from anywhere in Nagpur and want the weight, rate and making charge separated out, bring it to any of our four showrooms. There is no obligation to buy.
Sitabuldi, Modi Number 2, opposite Datta Mandir, Nagpur 440012, call 090755 12053
Gokulpeth, Plot 175, N Bazar Road, Nagpur 440010, call 084460 90383
Manish Nagar, Beltarodi Road near Shanti Park, Nagpur 440037, call 080101 48427
Nandanvan, Tiranga Square Road, opposite Axis Bank, Nagpur 440024
Open 11 AM to 8:30 PM, all 7 days.
