The concern comes amid a 17% rise in gold loans on a year-on-year basis and a 16.6% rally in the yellow metal's prices. Loans against gold jewellery stood at ₹1,01,934 crore as of January 26 and gold prices have touched a high of ₹65,140 per 10 grams on March 5. The finance ministry stated that it had noticed instances of non-compliance regarding the gold loan portfolio and had hence issued the directive.