In a recent media interaction, Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister of India, talked about the country’s idea of cryptocurrency and its application.
India seeks to develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) for cryptocurrency during its G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023. The country also announced a 30% tax on crypto assets in February during its annual budget session. The finance minister also highlighted the use and requirement of technology by countries for thriving the changes but shouldn’t be misused.
It is expected that India will host over 200 G20 meetings across various domestic locations beginning this December. This would be an opportunity for the country to take ideas from various global institutions while shaping the nation’s framework for cryptocurrency. The finance minister cited how every country, institution, or organization associated with G-20 has its study or assessments related to cryptocurrency, including the World Bank, which will significantly help India.
While highlighting the inefficiency of any country in regulating or handling crypto individually, the finance minister stated the importance of letting technology be unaffected. She further added that the technology must survive and be in a position to benefit FinTech and other relevant sectors.
Sitharaman, while addressing the risk of financial stability involved with cryptocurrency, added the questions of platforms, trading on assets created, profit-making, and India’s ability to deal with nuances of crypto. Indians have shown a high rate of interest in investments related to Crypto with 115 million Indians to have invested in it as reported by Todayq.
She also added the example of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in tackling the issues of money laundering evolving from crypto assets and its trading in the country, which several members of the G20 have also acknowledged as a potential issue. Hence, the various risks serve an established purpose for a regulatory framework which has to be validated by all the countries.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a list of features and reasons behind its development of central bank digital currency (CBDC). It stated various reasons for the issuance of the digital rupee, including trust, safety, liquidity, settlement finality, integrity, reduced operational costs, and improved financial inclusion.