After a series of heated discussions, India might finally have come to a conclusion about the fate of virtual currencies in the country. As Bloomberg reports, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed that the country will be introducing a 30% tax on crypto assets as part of their regulatory legislation.
Moreover, the minister also revealed that The Reserve Bank of India aims to introduce the country’s first CBDC, the digital rupee, no later than April 1 of this year.
The new piece of legislation is set to bring about clarity to the world of cryptocurrencies, which is generally considered positive, as it eliminates the legal uncertainty of trading these digital assets in the country.
On the other hand, some are of the opinion that the country’s government is likely trying to diminish the use of crypto, as the tax seems rather high. The introduction of India’s own CBCD further supports this thesis as many feel like its primary role is to push crypto out.
However, as confirmed by Darshan Bathija, CEO of Singaporian crypto exchange Vauld, “imposing the tax rate makes crypto trading official now and any concern of a ban is off the table.” On the other hand, he also speculated that the high tax might encourage crypto enthusiasts to trade in other countries, diminishing India’s revenues.
All in all, we will eventually have to see the new pieces of regulation in practice before we can evaluate them. The bottom line seems to be that there is an overall positive attitude towards crypto adoption in India now, after an uncertain period of time when an absolute ban was still on the table.
