Gold fever in India: How higher import duty sparked a buying rush across jewellery, ETFs and digital gold

Indians thronged jewellery shops, rushed to purchase exchange traded funds (ETF) and purchased digital gold units (currently unregulated) through e-commerce platforms, jewellers and refiners owing to a near doubling of import duty and associated cess on gold purchases. Starting May 13, 2026, the basic customs duty on gold was enhanced to 10% (5% earlier), while the agriculture, infrastructure and development cess was raised to 5% (1% earlier). This led to an increase in overall gold import duty to 15%, which was the rate in 2022. This followed the earlier nudge by the Prime Minister to avoid gold purchases for a…