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India’s Minister of Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has said that as long as the appropriate regulations are upheld, there won’t be any problems with cryptocurrency there.
There is “nothing now that forbids cryptocurrency as long as you follow the legal process,” according to Chandrasekhar, who was speaking at a gathering in Bengaluru in southern India. The comments were made just a few days after the nation’s central bank recommended investors to steer clear of cryptocurrency.
Digital assets have long been the target of scathing criticism from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which claims that the emerging asset class has any intrinsic value.The central bank has frequently recommended the government and investors to steer clear of cryptocurrencies owing to their volatility and potential for fraud and scams.
Shaktikanta Das, governor of India’s central bank, stated only last week that cryptocurrencies lack inherent value and that their apparent worth is “nothing but make-believe. He made reference to the famous Dutch tulip craze blow-up in the early part of the previous century when he remarked that cryptocurrencies aren’t even worth a tulip.
“Every asset, every financial product has to have some underlying (value) but in the case of crypto there is no underlying… not even a tulip…and the increase in the market price of cryptos, is based on make-believe.”
India, which is now in charge of the G20, intends to take advantage of this chance to coordinate international crypto policy. As was previously said, the G20 nations would research the effects of cryptocurrencies on the economy, monetary policy, and banking sector in order to inform a policy consensus. This was stated by India’s federal economic affairs secretary, Ajay Seth, in December of last year.
The nation’s central bank, on the other hand, has backed Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), referring to them as “the future of money.” In collaboration with nine institutions, India launched a digital currency trial program in November of last year.
It is important to note that India’s contentious cryptocurrency tax policies, which include a 30% tax on cryptocurrency revenue and a 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) when making a crypto transfer, have had a negative effect on trading volumes on regional cryptocurrency exchanges.
Indian crypto traders have shifted over $3.8 billion in trading volume from local exchanges to foreign crypto platforms since the country’s divisive tax policy went into force, according to a report by the Delhi-based Esya Centre, a think tank for technology policy.
According to the research, “an estimated 17 lakh customers migrated” from domestic crypto exchanges to overseas equivalents during the course of the previous year. “Of this, cumulative volume of $3,055 million was offshored within six months of the current financial year,” it said.
