How gold saving schemes work

What a jeweller’s saving scheme is

A gold saving scheme lets a customer pay for jewellery in instalments, before they buy it. As Mint describes these schemes, the customer puts in a fixed sum every month and redeems the total as jewellery from your shop at the end of the scheme.

For the customer, a scheme spreads a large purchase over a year. For the shop, it brings the customer back to the counter every month and ends with a sale. Both sides gain only if the scheme is run cleanly: clear rules, a receipt for every rupee, and a closing that matches what was promised at the start.

Present a scheme as a way to pay for jewellery in advance, not as an investment: the rupees are fixed, but the gold they buy is not. The gold rate moves during the year, and the customer’s money buys gold at whatever the rate is on the day they buy. Say so in your scheme rules, and don’t describe the shop’s contribution as interest or a return.

Pay 11, get 12

The structure most customers know is “pay 11, get 12”. In Mint’s words, you pay instalments for 11 months and the jeweller pays the last month’s instalment on your behalf. The customer then uses the full value of 12 instalments to buy jewellery.

The details vary a great deal. Mint’s round-up of schemes from large jewellers shows differences in the number of instalments, the size of the shop’s contribution, whether the customer saves in rupees or in grams of gold, what happens when an instalment is missed, and what happens if the jewellery isn’t bought within the scheme’s time limit.

So write your own rules down, and give every member a copy when they join. At the least, they should answer these questions:

• How much is the instalment, how many are there, and when is each one due?
• What does the shop add, and on what condition?
• What happens if an instalment is late or missed?
• When can the scheme be closed, and what can the money be used for?
• What happens if the customer wants to leave early, or doesn’t buy within the time limit?

Working out the gold a scheme buys

Take a customer who joins with ₹5,000 a month. The rate here, ₹7,215 a gram for 22K, is an example only, not today’s rate.

Line	Amount
You pay 11 × ₹5,000	₹55,000
Shop adds 1 instalment	₹5,000
Gold value	₹60,000
22K rate (example)	₹7,215/g
Gold it buys	8.316 g

The arithmetic is ₹60,000 ÷ ₹7,215, which comes to 8.3160… g. The planner on this site rounds down to the milligram, so the figure never promises more gold than the money buys.

Two things change the answer at the counter. The first is the rate: if the 22K rate is higher on the day of purchase, the same ₹60,000 buys less gold, and if it is lower, it buys more. The second is what the scheme value has to cover. Jewellery carries 3% GST, and your shop may charge making as well. If those are paid out of the same ₹60,000, the gold in the finished piece will weigh less than 8.316 g. Tell the customer at the start which way your scheme works, so that the last visit holds no surprises.

The rules that apply to running a scheme

Money taken from customers in advance can fall under the law on deposits, and the law that applies depends partly on who runs the scheme. This section describes the rules as published. Whether your scheme falls inside or outside them depends on its terms, and that is a question for your CA or legal adviser.

If your business is a company. The Companies (Acceptance of Deposits) Rules, 2014 list amounts that are not treated as deposits. One of them is an amount received in the course of business “as an advance for supply of goods or provision of services accounted for in any manner whatsoever provided that such advance is appropriated against supply of goods or provision of services within a period of three hundred and sixty-five days from the date of acceptance of such advance”. The clock in that clause starts from the date the advance is accepted. The rules have other conditions and provisos as well. In The Hindu BusinessLine in 2015, Rajalakshmi Nirmal reported that, after these rules came in, jewellers cut their scheme periods to under 12 months so that the money would not be treated as a deposit.

Whatever form your business takes. The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019 bans deposit schemes that are run as a business and are not among the regulated deposit schemes listed in its First Schedule. Its list of “deposit takers” includes an individual, a proprietorship concern, a partnership firm, an LLP and a company. Its definition of “deposit” covers money received with a promise to return it “in cash or in kind”, “with or without any benefit in the form of interest, bonus, profit or in any other form”.

The Act then leaves out some business receipts. One is a payment or advance for the supply of goods that “is repayable in the event the goods or services are not in fact sold”. But if such an amount becomes refundable, the Act deems it a deposit “on the expiry of fifteen days from the date on which they become due for refund”. For a company, the Act says “deposit” has the meaning it has under the Companies Act, 2013.

These rules turn on details: how long money is held, what happens when a customer leaves early, and how refunds are handled. Before you launch or change a scheme, have its written rules read by your CA or legal adviser.

Records that keep a scheme clean

A scheme is only as good as its records. For every member, you should be able to show:

• The member. Name, phone number, the scheme they joined, the date they joined, and the copy of the rules they were given.
• Every instalment. The date, the amount, how it was paid, and a receipt the customer can keep.
• Where they stand today. Instalments paid, instalments due, and anything missed.
• The closing. The date, the total paid, what the shop added, and the bill the scheme was used against. If a member leaves early, record what was refunded, and when.

Kept this way, the records answer a customer’s question in a minute, and show your CA or legal adviser exactly how the scheme runs in practice.

In 24Gold, saving schemes have a module of their own. You set up scheme masters, with as many instalments as each scheme needs, enrol members, enter instalments and close a member’s scheme. An as-on-date report shows where members stand. Customers can also pay instalments online through Cashfree in the customer app.

Rules as published on 16 October 2026. This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check how these rules apply to your scheme with your CA or legal adviser.