Zakat in India: Nisab in Rupees, Tola and How to Calculate

In India, Zakat is 2.5 percent of your zakatable wealth once it has stayed at or above the nisab for a full lunar year. The nisab is 7.5 tola of gold (87.48 grams) or 52.5 tola of silver (612.36 grams). To find it in rupees, multiply those grams by today's price per gram. Many Indian scholars of the Hanafi school advise measuring cash and mixed savings against the silver nisab.

This guide explains the tola figures, how Indian gold rates are quoted, Zakat on jewellery, savings and salary, and how to give Zakat to families in Gaza. It explains the rules the calculators are built on; it is not a fatwa. For your own situation, ask a mufti or your local Darul Ifta.

What is the nisab for Zakat in India?

The nisab comes from a hadith in Sunan Abi Dawud: nothing is due on gold until it reaches twenty dinars, or on silver until it reaches two hundred dirhams. Indian scholars usually give these in tola, the traditional South Asian weight: 7.5 tola of gold and 52.5 tola of silver.

A traditional tola is about 11.66 grams, which gives 87.48 grams of gold and 612.36 grams of silver. Some scholars work the classical weights out slightly differently, as 85 grams of gold and 595 grams of silver. If you are close to the line, giving is the cautious choice.

One trap is specific to India. Jewellers and newspapers quote the gold rate per 10 grams, and some people loosely call that a tola. It is not: 10 grams is less than a traditional tola. Work in grams and you avoid the confusion.

How to work out the nisab in rupees

There is no fixed rupee nisab, because gold and silver prices change every day. Work it out on the day your Zakat falls due:

• Silver nisab: 612.36 x today's price of one gram of silver. With a round example price of 250 rupees a gram, that is 612.36 x 250 = ₹1,53,090.
• Gold nisab: 87.48 x today's price of one gram of pure (24-karat) gold. With a round example price of 10,000 rupees a gram, that is ₹8,74,800.
• These prices are examples to show the arithmetic, not today's rates. Use the rate for your city on your Zakat date.

Gold or silver nisab: which one applies?

Most Muslims in India follow the Hanafi school; many in Kerala and along the west coast follow the Shafi'i school. The two schools use the same nisab figures but apply them a little differently.

Many Hanafi scholars in India advise that if you hold only gold, you compare it with the gold nisab; but if you hold cash, or a mix of cash, gold and silver, you add their values together and compare the total with the silver nisab. Because the silver figure is much lower, more people pay and more of the needy benefit. Others measure everything against gold. This is exactly the kind of point to settle with your own scholar.

Zakat on gold jewellery in India

In the Hanafi school, Zakat is due on gold and silver jewellery that reaches the nisab, even if it is worn every day. In the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools, most scholars hold that permissible jewellery kept for personal use is not subject to Zakat. Follow the school you normally follow; our guide to Zakat on gold sets out both views.

You pay on the pure gold in a piece. Hallmarked jewellery in India carries a BIS mark that shows its purity: 22K916 means 91.6 percent gold, 18K750 means 75 percent and 14K585 means 58.5 percent.

A worked example, using the same made-up price of 10,000 rupees per gram of pure gold: 10 tola of 22-karat jewellery weighs about 116.64 grams. Its pure gold content is 116.64 x 0.916 = 106.84 grams, which is above the gold nisab. Its value is 106.84 x 10,000 = ₹10,68,400, and Zakat at 2.5 percent is ₹26,710.

A shortcut for pure gold: Zakat on one tola is the value of about 0.29 grams of gold, because 11.66 x 2.5 percent is roughly 0.29.

Zakat on savings, salary and investments

There is no Zakat on your salary as such. What counts is what you hold on your Zakat date: cash at home, money in savings accounts and fixed deposits, gold and silver, and goods held for trade. Shares and mutual funds are usually counted at their value on that day; some scholars count only the zakatable part of a company's assets.

Scholars differ on provident fund and pension savings you cannot yet withdraw, so ask about those. There is no Zakat on the home you live in, your car or your household goods. Subtract debts and bills that are due now, not the whole of a long-term loan such as a home loan.

How to calculate your Zakat, step by step

You can do it on paper in a few minutes, or use the calculator on our Zakat page, which works in US dollars.

• Choose your Zakat date, the day in the lunar year when your wealth first reached the nisab, and use it every year.
• Add up cash, bank balances, fixed deposits, the value of your gold and silver, shares and trade goods.
• Subtract debts and bills that are due now.
• Compare the total with the nisab worked out at today's price.
• If you are at or above it, multiply by 0.025. For example, ₹4,00,000 of zakatable wealth gives ₹10,000 of Zakat.

Fitra (Sadaqat al-Fitr) is separate

Fitra is the small, fixed charity paid for every member of the household before the Eid al-Fitr prayer. It is not the same as annual Zakat on wealth. In the Hanafi school it is measured as half a sa' of wheat, or its value, and local ulama and Darul Ulooms in India announce the rupee amount each Ramadan, so use their figure for the year. Our guide to Zakat al-Fitr explains who pays it and when.

Can Zakat from India go to Gaza?

Most scholars allow Zakat to be sent to another country where the need is greater, provided it reaches people in the eight categories named in Surah At-Tawbah, verse 60. Many also hold that relatives and the poor near you have a strong claim, so ask your scholar how to divide your Zakat if you are unsure.

If you choose to give your Zakat to families in Gaza through us, use the Zakat donate option, or send your gift and tell us it is Zakat along with the transaction ID. It is recorded as Zakat and kept for eligible recipients, our running costs are not paid from Zakat, and partners are checked before funds move. We accept crypto only, not UPI or bank transfer, and our payment processor keeps 1 percent plus the network fee, so you may want to send a little extra. Our page for donors in India explains how to send USDT from an exchange, and our guide to sending USDT on TRC-20 walks through the transfer. There is also an Urdu version of this Zakat guidance.