At purchase
GST is levied at 3% on the value of the gold and 5% on making charges. Hallmarking is charged per article. Import duty and cess are already embedded in the metal rate before you see it.
These are costs, not credits — an individual buyer cannot recover them, which is why they never come back on resale.
At sale
Selling gold at more than its cost produces a capital gain. Where the holding period is short, the gain is added to your income and taxed at your slab rate. Where it is long, it is taxed as a long-term capital gain under the rules applicable in the year of sale.
Holding-period thresholds and long-term rates for gold have been revised more than once in recent years, so confirm the current position for your year of sale with a tax adviser before filing.
Why the invoice is critical
Your cost basis is what the invoice says you paid. Without it, establishing the purchase price — and therefore the gain — becomes difficult, and the entire sale value can be treated unfavourably. Keep purchase invoices with your tax records, not with the jewellery.
Digital gold and gold funds
Digital gold purchases attract GST in the same way as physical metal, since a physical allocation is being made. Redemption into coins or bars can attract making charges. Fund and paper instruments follow their own tax treatment, which differs from physical gold — check before assuming they are the same.
Documentation and reporting
Large cash transactions attract reporting and PAN requirements at the jeweller's end. Insisting on a full tax invoice with the jeweller's GSTIN protects you on purity, price and tax position simultaneously.