Wastage (VA%) Calculator

Machine-made chains run 5–8%, casting work 8–12%, handmade necklaces 12–16%, and temple or nakshi pieces 20–28% — antique jadau can honestly reach 35% because real metal is lost in the work. What is never normal: wastage charged on gross weight when the piece has stones. That bills gold 'wastage' on stone weight — this calculator shows you exactly how many rupees that adds.

They are the same money wearing different clothes. VA (value addition / wastage) is a percentage of the metal value — the South-India convention; making charges are usually ₹ per gram or a flat amount — the North convention. Many bills charge both at once. The only fair comparison is the effective making percentage — (VA + making) as a % of the metal value — which this tool computes for every quote so two differently-worded quotes can be ranked honestly.

Yes — 916 is 22K written as fineness: 91.6% pure gold, or 22 parts in 24. On a BIS hallmark it appears as 22K916 alongside the BIS logo and the six-character alphanumeric HUID. In this calculator, choosing 22K applies 0.916 to the 24K rate you typed, so the metal value follows the same figure your bill does.

Tunch is the trade word for purity — from touch, the touchstone test — so asking tunch kitni hai is asking how pure a piece really is. It matters most on exchange day: the old piece is tested and you are credited on that purity, less a melt-loss deduction. Ask for the reading and the deduction as two separate numbers, not one lump.

Both, depending on how the bill is written. Sold as goods, one 3% GST applies to the whole jewellery value — the usual retail bill. When making is billed as a separate service line, it is 3% on the metal and stones and 5% on the labour part. This calculator totals your piece both ways and shows the rupee gap between them.

Ask for four numbers before anything else: net gold weight, today's rate for that karat, the wastage or VA percentage and what weight it is charged on, and the making charge. With those you can rebuild the bill here line by line and see what the piece should come to. Working backwards from a total to the wastage hidden inside it is the quote decoder in Tools Pro.

No — you type the 24K rate yourself, and it is the one figure this tool will not guess for you. Lower karats derive from it (22K at 0.916, 18K at 0.75), and the rate is remembered for the other gold tools here. Everything else is free and uncapped: the full bill, the effective making percentage, and the printable A4 check sheet.