India’s draft bill to put a complete ban on cryptocurrency transactions will likely be passed, according to a senior Finance Ministry Official speaking to Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity. The finance ministry official said that when the bill gets passed, cryptocurrency holders and companies will have a transition period of between three to six months to wrap up their activity. India’s junior finance minister, Anurag Thakur, had earlier said that there should be more regulation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the region.
The legislative proposal is yet to be formally released.
The anti-crypto legislative proposal, the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, is yet to be formally released. But it appears set to ban all “private cryptocurrencies” in India, only allowing for a national digital currency to be used if India does create one. The anti-crypto bill may provide some exceptions. These will be “to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses; blockchain.” But this appears to be referencing blockchain technology as opposed to cryptocurrencies themselves.
Indian crypto community plans to fights back the upcoming proposed legislative.
Indian crypto industry has pooled their resources together and launched a campaign to gain support from parliament members about the upcoming anti-cryptocurrency regulation. The anti-crypto bill is listed to soon be introduced in the parliament. It seeks to prohibit cryptocurrencies while creating a digital rupee framework to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The Indian government plans to introduce the cryptocurrency bill entitled “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021” during parliament’s current session. In 2018, the Indian central bank prohibited banks from providing services to crypto businesses in the country. However, the supreme court of India overturned the ban earlier last year.
