The cryptocurrency Ban and the 10-year jail saga is far from over. Atleast, until news portals like BloombergQuint keep on dishing the whole draft in portions to us.
Today’s BQ report says “The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has sought action against those running cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes under the anti-money laundering act until a new law banning the digital tokens is implemented, a senior government official aware of the development told BloombergQuint.”
Of course this news is based on an official that doesn’t want to be named, like every other Crypto related news that the mainstream media pushes on to us.
Back on April 26, Economic Times wrote the same thing, “The ministry of corporate affairs has in its feedback to the department of economic affairs pointed out the sale purchase and issuance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum & CashCoin etc. are being done by individuals and companies on false inducements of massive returns.”
So how does this news deserve to be behind a paywall? Beats me. But that is the business I suppose. That is not all, the article now reveals more information from the “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and regulation of official digital currencies Bill 2019”.
More Info from the Bill
I have to hand it to Nikunj Ohri, the author of the article. He created a vague mystery around the first article about the proposed crypto banning bill by sharing just one passage from the entire article.
The passage was neither fully helpful not completely ignorable. It pissed off a lot of people for not having adequate information to justify the dramatic headline like “10 year Jail time for Crypto traders”.
We tried to reach Nikunj. We proposed that he should share the entire draft if he has access to it in the interest of the community. He never responded. Now, we know, Bloomberg Quint is sitting on a goose that lays golden eggs. Every other day, they can create a new article citing an anonymous official and part of the draft they possibly have and make people buy the subscription service. Take a bow Nikunj, I hope you get the raise you deserve from BQ.
You might think I am being harsh on a journalist, but let me tell you how the community was manipulated. He shared selective information and went silent when the community asked him questions about the missing information. People wanted to know what actually is part of subsection 1 of section 8, the activities that could send people to jail.
But today, in the article, BQ revealed more information about what are the activities that will be prohibited under the crypto ban bill. The article says
“The draft bill also states those who use cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange, as a store of value, or a unit of account, as a payment system, buy or sell or store cryptocurrency, provide cryptocurrency related services to consumers, trade cryptocurrency with Indian or foreign currency, as a basis of credit will be subject to a fine or imprisonment which may extend up to 10 years, or both.”
Bloomberg Quint
The BQ report then goes on to quote another government official about how the punishment could be milder for “non-commercial use” of crypto assets.
In a nutshell, the article tells us that government officials have shared with BQ about how the MCA wants to take action on Crypto Ponzi under the money laundering act, until a proper ban is implemented in the country on Cryptocurrencies.
I wish we had more info. I sincerely do. The FUD is not helping our community.
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