India’s government is rolling out quite a bit of new cryptocurrency law that will have an effect on the rather large crypto market there.
In the past, lawmakers had proposed a blanket cryptocurrency ban, and although that hasn’t gone through in the end, new rules will establish a capital gains rate of 30% and other financial incentives for investors to steer clear of these decentralized finance assets.
One of these implementations is a 1% “tax deducted at source,” which looks kind of like a sales tax as instituted in traditional markets, and which, according to some reports, was fairly unpopular in process.
“The crypto industry had fought against this bill after the taxes were first proposed in February, supplementing meetings with lawmakers with a change.org petition and an online campaign,” writes Amitoj Singh at Coindesk. “There was some hope the capital gains tax or TDS might be eased, but neither happened.”
The rules are set to go into effect April 1, which might lead some jokers to consider them satire. However, to those who are serious about crypto, the whole thing might seem more depressing.
“Industry participants have little hope that the current administration, headed up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will have a change of heart before the legislation is formally introduced into parliament this week,” Singh explains.
Crypto fans are also mulling a Supreme Court challenge.
Meanwhile, India’s top court is asking for clarity.
“A division bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant asked the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to clarify the doubt while hearing a petition by an accused in the GainBitcoin scam,” writes Vishnu V at RepublicWorld today. “’Is it illegal or not. You have to make your stand clear,’ the bench told the ASG while they agreed to throw light on the subject.”
Keep an eye on how this large nation is regulating BTC and everything connected to the blockchain.