The Crypto Bill is still undergoing consultations, says Finance Minister

Finance Minister NIrmala Sitharaman

The Cryptocurrency Bill will be introduced in the Parliament post consultations which is still underway, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in an exclusive interview to Network 18 on February 2.

“Post consultations, we will be coming up with the Bill, whether it is possible within this session or not is something I will have to see. I don’t know what it will be yet,” said Sitharaman.

In the Budget for FY23, the Government announced tax on income from 'virtual assets' which will be at 30%. 'Virtual assets' is proposed to mean any information or code or number or token which is generated through cryptographic means. It also includes non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Experts have noted that while gains from cryptocurrencies will be taxed, the details on its legalities, classification of various cryptos, and regulation will only be disclosed in the impending Crypto bill.

The Finance Minister also noted that crypto assets are not currencies. “I am trying to draw this distinction from privately generated crypto assets and what can be a digital currency. Now private people can always create on blockchain technology but they cannot be currency. They can be some type of asset, but we cannot define them. We are still doing a wide range consultation on this,” she said.

“Currency would be when the Reserve bank of India issues it. That is why we proposed that the RBI would issue Digital Currency,” Sitharaman said.

RBI will be issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022-23. It is the same as a fiat currency but the form is different and is exchangeable one-to-one with the government-issued money.