diff --git a/src/index.cpp b/src/index.cpp
index 0b01afa20..4daf2839c 100644
--- a/src/index.cpp
+++ b/src/index.cpp
@@ -1806,9 +1806,46 @@ void Index<T, TagT, LabelT>::build(const std::string &data_file, const size_t nu
     size_t points_to_load = num_points_to_load == 0 ? _max_points : num_points_to_load;
 
     auto s = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
+
+    std::vector<TagT> tags;
+
+    if (_enable_tags)
+    {
+        if (filter_params.tags_file.empty())
+        {
+            throw ANNException("Tag filename isn't set, while _enable_tags is set", -1, __FUNCSIG__, __FILE__, __LINE__);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            if (file_exists(filter_params.tags_file))
+            {
+                diskann::cout << "Loading tags from " << filter_params.tags_file << " for vamana index build" << std::endl;
+                TagT* tag_data = nullptr;
+                size_t npts, ndim;
+                diskann::load_bin(filter_params.tags_file, tag_data, npts, ndim);
+                if (npts < num_points_to_load)
+                {
+                    std::stringstream sstream;
+                    sstream << "Loaded " << npts << " tags, insufficient to populate tags for " << num_points_to_load
+                        << "  points to load";
+                    throw diskann::ANNException(sstream.str(), -1, __FUNCSIG__, __FILE__, __LINE__);
+                }
+                tags.resize(num_points_to_load);
+                memcpy(tags.data(), tag_data, sizeof(TagT) * num_points_to_load);
+                    
+                delete[] tag_data;
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                throw diskann::ANNException(std::string("Tag file") + filter_params.tags_file + " does not exist", -1, __FUNCSIG__,
+                    __FILE__, __LINE__);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     if (filter_params.label_file == "")
     {
-        this->build(data_file.c_str(), points_to_load);
+        this->build(data_file.c_str(), points_to_load, tags);
     }
     else
     {
@@ -1823,7 +1860,7 @@ void Index<T, TagT, LabelT>::build(const std::string &data_file, const size_t nu
 //            LabelT unv_label_as_num = 0;
             this->set_universal_label(unv_label_as_num);
         }
-        this->build_filtered_index(data_file.c_str(), labels_file_to_use, points_to_load);
+        this->build_filtered_index(data_file.c_str(), labels_file_to_use, points_to_load, tags);
     }
     std::chrono::duration<double> diff = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now() - s;
     std::cout << "Indexing time: " << diff.count() << "\n";