Gold Price in Nepal: Tola Rates and How They're Set

One tola of 24K gold in Nepal comes to roughly Rs243,650 at the international price used here, which is Rs20,889 per gram and Rs208,890 for ten grams. But the figure a Kathmandu jeweller chalks on the board each morning is not pulled from a live feed — it comes from a single daily fixing published by the national dealers' association, and it does not move again until the next morning. This piece explains the machinery behind that number: the two purity columns, the fixing, the import quota and the wedding season. For the internationally-derived rate that updates through the day, see the live gold rate in Nepal.

What a Tola Actually Costs in Nepal

Nepal quotes gold per tola, not per gram, and that single convention causes most of the confusion when foreigners read a Nepali rate board. One tola is 11.664 grams — a fixed South Asian weight, unchanged and unambiguous, explained in full in 1 tola gold: how many grams.

The arithmetic is simply the per-gram value multiplied by 11.664. At Rs20,889 per gram, 24K works out to 20,889 x 11.664 = Rs243,650 per tola. At Rs19,148 per gram, 22K gives 19,148 x 11.664 = Rs223,340. The ten-gram figure that Indian buyers are used to is just the per-gram number with a zero added.

These are pure metal values, derived from a world price of $136.92 per gram converted at roughly 152.57 rupees to the dollar. They exclude making charges, margin and tax — a jewellery ticket always sits above them. Sanity-check any karat against the international benchmark on the gold price per gram page.

Chhapawal and Tejabi: The Two Columns Nobody Explains

Walk past a jeweller in Asan or New Road and the board will show two gold prices, one above the other, a few thousand rupees apart. This is the part outsiders never decode, and it is the single most useful thing to understand about buying gold in Nepal.

• Chhapawal gold — the hallmarked, stamped, high-fineness standard, effectively 24K at 999 purity. This is the bar-and-investment grade, and it is the higher of the two prices on the board.
• Tejabi gold — the traditional Nepali refining grade, marginally lower in fineness, long used as the working metal for jewellery. It sits a step below chhapawal on the board and is what much traditional ornament is made from.
• The gap is small in percentage terms but real in rupees. If the fineness difference is around half a percent, that is roughly 243,650 x 0.005 = Rs1,220 on a single tola — and a wedding set is rarely one tola.
• Neither term describes karat in the way 22K or 18K does. Ask for the karat or fineness figure as well, then price the metal yourself.

The practical consequence: a quote is meaningless until you know which column it came from. A price that looks attractive may simply be the tejabi line, and a piece sold at the chhapawal rate should carry chhapawal fineness. Hallmarking is the check that ties the two together — see what a hallmark on gold actually means for how to read the stamps.

FENEGOSIDA: Why the Price Moves Once a Day

Nepal does not have a continuously traded domestic gold market. Instead, the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association — FENEGOSIDA — publishes a daily reference rate, and essentially every jeweller in the country quotes off it. The fenegosida gold rate is the number behind the board.

That rate is an association fixing, not a live market print. It is built from the international price plus the costs of getting metal into a landlocked country — freight, insurance, bank charges, duty and the dealer chain's margin — and it is set for the day rather than tick by tick.

This explains a genuine puzzle. If world spot jumps at 2am Kathmandu time, a Nepali shop's price does not move. It moves the next morning, and it can lag a fast international move by the better part of a day in either direction. On a rising day that favours the buyer; on a falling day it favours the shop. Comparing the fixing against the internationally-derived figure on the Nepal gold rate page shows which way the lag is pointing.

One more consequence worth knowing: because the fixing is national, the gold rate in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Biratnagar starts from the same base. Differences between shops come from making charges and margin, not from the metal price.

Why Nepal's Price Shadows India's Almost Exactly

The Nepali rupee is pegged to the Indian rupee at 1.60 NPR to 1 INR. That peg has held for decades, and it means Nepal's gold price is arithmetically chained to India's rather than merely correlated with it.

The match is close to exact, and it is not a coincidence — it falls straight out of the currency arrangement. Any real divergence between the two countries' retail prices therefore has to come from something other than the exchange rate: duty, tax treatment, quota-constrained supply or seasonal demand. India's own price history and the tax layer that sits on top of it are covered in gold price history in India and the current Indian figure on the India gold rate page.

Weddings, Teej and the seasonal bid

Gold is not decorative in Nepal, it is structural. It is central to marriage — given, worn and counted as a family's transferable savings — and it is bought heavily around Teej, when jewellery is worn as part of the festival itself. Dashain and Tihar add further seasonal buying.

The result is a demand curve with pronounced peaks rather than a steady flow. Buyers with flexibility on timing often do better away from those peaks, when both the premium over import parity and the pressure on making charges ease. The quota ceiling sharpens that effect here.

How to Check a Quote at the Counter

The metal is the same everywhere; what varies is everything wrapped around it. In Nepal the making charge is called jyala, and it is where the shop's real margin sits. Ask for it as a separate line, never as part of a single blended per-tola figure.

1. 1.Ask which column the quote comes from: chhapawal or tejabi. Get the answer before discussing price.
2. 2.Ask for the fineness or karat in figures — 999, 916, 875 — and check for a hallmark stamp on the piece itself.
3. 3.Ask for jyala separately, along with any wastage percentage. A quote with no separate making charge is a quote you cannot audit.
4. 4.Compute the metal value first: grams x per-gram rate for that karat, or tola x 11.664 x per-gram rate. Anything above that number is charges.
5. 5.Compare the same piece at a second shop. The fixing is national, so any price difference is margin, and margin is negotiable.

For the metal-value step, the karat purity calculator does the fine-gold arithmetic for any karat and weight, and gold making charges explained sets out how jyala and wastage are typically structured and what a reasonable level looks like. Duty and tax treatment differ sharply across borders — the sibling piece on gold taxes by country covers how much of a retail price is fiscal rather than metal.

Silver follows the same institutional pattern in Nepal: the same association publishes the reference rate, and it is quoted per tola alongside gold. At the international price used here, silver runs to roughly Rs306 per gram, or about Rs3,571 per tola. The current figure sits on the live silver rate in Nepal page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 1 tola gold price in Nepal today?

At the international price used in this article, one tola of 24K gold in Nepal is about Rs243,650 and one tola of 22K about Rs223,340. That comes from Rs20,889 and Rs19,148 per gram respectively, multiplied by 11.664 grams per tola. These are metal values only, before jyala, dealer margin and tax, so a jewellery ticket will be higher. Check the live figure before transacting.

What is the difference between chhapawal and tejabi gold?

Chhapawal is the hallmarked high-fineness standard, effectively 24K at 999 purity, used for bars and investment pieces. Tejabi is the traditional Nepali grade, slightly lower in fineness, long used as the working metal for jewellery. Nepali rate boards quote both, which is why you see two gold prices. Always confirm which one a quote refers to, because the difference on a multi-tola wedding set is meaningful.

Who sets the gold rate in Nepal?

The Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, known as FENEGOSIDA, publishes the daily reference rate that jewellers across the country quote from. It is an association fixing derived from the international price plus import costs, not a continuously traded market price. It is set once a day, which is why a Nepali shop's price does not move when world spot moves overnight.

Why does the Nepal gold price track India's so closely?

Because the Nepali rupee is pegged to the Indian rupee at 1.60 NPR per 1 INR. Multiply India's 24K price of Rs13,055 per gram by 1.60 and you get Rs20,888 — essentially Nepal's Rs20,889. The peg removes exchange-rate divergence entirely, so any gap between the two retail markets comes from duty, tax, making charges or quota-constrained supply rather than currency.

Is hallmarked gold available in Nepal?

Yes — hallmark gold in Nepal is standard for chhapawal-grade pieces and increasingly expected on jewellery. Ask to see the stamp on the item and ask what fineness it certifies, rather than relying on a verbal karat claim. Requirements and enforcement have tightened over time, so confirm the current position with the jeweller and prefer established shops that document purity on the bill.

Is the gold rate in Kathmandu different from other cities?

The metal rate is national. Because every jeweller quotes from the same daily association fixing, the gold rate in Kathmandu starts from the same base as Pokhara, Butwal or Biratnagar. What differs between cities and between shops is jyala, wastage percentage and margin. That is useful to know: a price difference you find is negotiable, because it is not coming from the metal.

Conclusion

Nepal's gold market runs on three things outsiders rarely see: a tola-denominated board split into chhapawal and tejabi columns, a once-daily FENEGOSIDA fixing that lags world spot by hours, and an import quota that turns seasonal wedding demand into a local premium. Get those three straight and a Nepali price stops looking arbitrary. Start from the metal — one tola of 24K is about Rs243,650 at Rs20,889 per gram — then treat everything above it as charges you are entitled to see itemised. Use the live gold rate in Nepal for the internationally-derived comparison, the karat purity calculator to price the fine content of any piece before you negotiate, and gold making charges explained to judge whether the jyala being quoted is reasonable. The tola market next door is far larger — gold price history in India tracks it — and gold taxes by country explains the import-duty layer that shapes Nepali premiums.