In Rajyasabha, Minister of State to Ministry of Finance Anurag Singh Thakur answered “No” to a question whether Government has prohibited crypto currency in India.
It has been a roller coaster ride for Indian Crypto community this past week that started with the leak of the alleged draft of a bill for banning cryptocurrencies.
However, Crypto lovers in the country can now calm down given that a minister in the ministry of Finance has officially confirmed there is no prohibition on cryptocurrencies in India. Anurag Singh Thakur, in his response to couple of questions asked in Rajysabha on the subject also mentioned the inter departmental committee set up to report on how to regulate crypto in India has submitted its report to the government.
More Answers from LokSabha
Similar questions were also asked in the lower house of the parliament – The Loksabha and the answers were word to word same as the previous one.
The Loksabha answer from Anurag Singh Thakur to the question whether the government has any proposal to ban crypto currency seemed to be have copied from an answer to similar question on December 28, 2018 by then minister Pon. Radhakrishnan.
Thakur said government doesn’t consider Cryptocurrency as a legal tender and that the inter-ministerial committee is setup to investigate and report.
The answers include a list of warnings about the risk of cryptocurrencies issued by the government and the RBI and the Prohibition to banks from doing business with people involved in Crypto diktat from April 2018.
What is surprising is that despite significant developments around the regulation of Crypto in other countries in the last six months, the government still insists there is a lack of global regulations. This is also means that India may not take a lead on regulation of crypto against other developed nations.
“In absence of a globally acceptable solution and the need to devise technically feasible solution, the Department is pursuing the matter with due caution.”
Answer by Anurag Singh Thakur in Loksabha regarding Crypto regulations
Have a look at the whole answer here:
Question on Ban on Crypto in Loksabha
What about the Crypto Ban Speculations from Media?
Many media houses, including Coin Crunch India have acquired a alleged copy of the draft bill submitted by the Inter ministerial committee mentioned earlier. the draft bill is titled “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and regulation of official digital currencies Bill 2019”.
According to the draft, if the bill is passed, cryptocurrency holding, trading, mining will be completely banned in India. The people who will still engage with crypto may face jail time or heavy fines. Watch the video where we drill down the entire draft.
We don’t know for sure if the copy of the bill is completely true. It could be that it is an old draft, while a new was prepared after the latest FATF recommendations on regulation of Cryptocurrencies.
It is also possible that there will be a lot of changes made before this bill becomes a law in India. This would take anywhere between 6 months and 2 years to come to enactment.
So currently, people can keep trading cryptocurrencies like business as usual, just make sure you pay the tax on your profits. Ban or not, income tax department will come after anyone who does not pay proper tax.
Lastly, let me sum it up with my personal tweet.
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