India's precious metals market is governed by a web of overlapping regulators, each responsible for a distinct facet of the supply chain. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) controls who can import gold and silver by nominating a select group of banks and canalizing agencies. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Ministry of Commerce, sets the broader trade policy framework through the Foreign Trade Policy and specific notifications governing import eligibility, tariff-rate quotas (such as the UAE CEPA gold quota), and qualified jeweller norms for IIBX. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) administers hallmarking regulations that determine how gold is certified and sold at the retail level. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) oversees anti-money-laundering compliance for dealers and jewellers under the PMLA framework. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) administers customs duty and the Goods and Services Tax on bullion. This multi-regulator structure means that a single policy change — a duty revision, a hallmarking mandate, or an import rule tweak — can cascade across the entire value chain.

The Union Budget of July 2024 stands as the most significant policy event for Indian gold markets in recent memory. The Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on gold was slashed from 15% to 6%, with the Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess (AIDC) removed entirely. This 9-percentage-point reduction was the steepest single duty cut in over a decade, immediately compressing the premium Indian consumers pay over international spot prices. The impact was direct and measurable: domestic gold prices dropped sharply on the announcement, smuggling incentives fell dramatically, and official import volumes surged in subsequent months. The principle is straightforward — every 1% change in import duty translates to roughly a 1% change in the landed cost of gold, which flows directly into retail prices.

The operationalisation of IIBX in July 2022 introduced a parallel import channel that has steadily gained volume. Before IIBX, all physical gold imports flowed exclusively through RBI-nominated banks. IIBX allows qualified jewellers — those meeting minimum net worth and track record requirements set by DGFT — to import gold directly through the exchange in GIFT City, with settlement handled by IFSCA-regulated clearing infrastructure. This channel has reduced the intermediation cost for large jewellers and introduced a transparent, exchange-discovered import price that competes with the OTC bank channel.

BIS mandatory hallmarking, launched in Phase 1 in June 2021 covering 256 districts, has expanded steadily to reach all 767 districts by Phase 4 in April 2024. The six-digit HUID (Hallmark Unique Identification) system assigns a unique code to every hallmarked gold article, enabling end-to-end traceability from the jeweller to the consumer. Silver hallmarking, introduced in a voluntary phase in August 2025, is expected to follow a similar trajectory toward mandatory status. These phased rollouts have fundamentally changed retail gold commerce in India, making it nearly impossible to sell non-hallmarked gold jewellery through formal channels.

PMLA compliance requirements for jewellers and DPMS have tightened considerably since 2022. Mandatory registration with FIU-IND, KYC obligations for transactions of Rs 50,000 and above, reporting of cash transactions exceeding Rs 10 lakh, and a 7-day window for filing suspicious transaction reports have brought the precious metals trade under formal financial surveillance. For investors and consumers tracking gold prices, understanding this regulatory landscape is essential — policy shifts are not abstract events but direct determinants of the price displayed at every jeweller's counter and every exchange terminal across the country.