Nothing Outlaws Crypto as Long as You Follow Legal Process, MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar Says

Reserve Bank of India has been pushing for greater regulation of cryptocurrencies.

By Reuters | Updated: 20 January 2023 12:38 IST

Nothing Outlaws Crypto as Long as You Follow Legal Process, MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar Says

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das urged for the prohibition of cryptocurrencies last month

Highlights

India has been trying to come up with regulation for cryptocurrencies
Illicit use of cryptocurrencies reportedly hit $20.1 billion last year
Government established a taxation framework for cryptocurrencies in 2022

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday said there was no issue with cryptocurrencies in India if all laws are followed, in remarks that contradicted the Reserve Bank of India's view advising investors to stay away from crypto.

India has been trying to come up with regulation for cryptocurrencies, with a central bank deputy governor even calling for them to be banned, but the government has not been able to formulate legislation yet.

In the last budget, the government established a taxation framework for cryptocurrencies, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the World Economic Forum last year that a collective global effort was needed to deal with the problems posed by digital currencies.

Bitcoin Price Rises as Ether, Most Altcoins Trail Along: See Crypto Prices

Junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, speaking at an event in the southern city of Bengaluru, said: "There is nothing today that outlaws crypto as long as you follow the legal process."

In February 2022, a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), T. Rabi Sankar, said cryptocurrencies were akin to Ponzi schemes or worse and banning them was the most sensible option for India.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also said in February that cryptocurrencies lacked the underlying value of even a tulip.

Crypto Firms Seek Tax Relaxation From Government Ahead of Union Budget

Last month, Das urged for prohibition of cryptocurrencies, calling crypto trading “a 100 per cent speculative activity.” The RBI Governor warned that the next financial crisis could be triggered by private cryptocurrencies, if such speculative instruments were allowed to grow. "Cryptocurrencies… have huge inherent risks from macroeconomic and financial stability (perspective) and we have been pointing it out," Das said.

Illicit use of cryptocurrencies reportedly hit a record $20.1 billion (nearly Rs. 1,63,217 crore) last year. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, transactions associated with sanctioned entities increased more than 100,000-fold in 2022 and made up 44 percent of last year's illicit activity.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Will crypto tax hurt the industry in India? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.