India Will Frame Crypto Laws Only After Obtaining Global Consensus
The
Government of India is reportedly planning to finalize its position on the
cryptocurrency law only after obtaining global consensus by the first quarter
of next year to become Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliant.
"We will finalize our responses by February-March 2023. We have to respond
to the FATF by May," a government official said.
India Will Finalize Its Legal Position On Cryptocurrency
The
Government of India is finalizing its position on the legality of
cryptocurrency to submit its response to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
for "mutual evaluation" by early 2023, Business Today reported on
Monday.
"The
Revenue Department has already sent their views and the Department of Economic
Affairs has now been tasked to prepare a detailed response on the legality of
cryptocurrency," a government official was quoted as saying.
The
FATF mutual evaluations are "in-depth country reports analyzing the
implementation and effectiveness of measures to combat money laundering and
terrorist financing," its website details.
The
government official further told the publication:
"One of the questions we must address is the legality of cryptocurrencies, as we have already begun to tax them. We will finalize our responses by February–March 2023. We have to respond to the FATF by May."
In
addition, a Financial Stability Board (FSB) report is expected in October. It
will help the Indian government decide whether to ban cryptocurrency transactions
or provide a legal framework for dealing with crypto trading in India, Outlook
India reported on Monday, citing a senior government official.
The
official was quoted as saying:
"We
are awaiting the Financial Stability Board (FSB) report, which will be important
from the crypto legislation perspective. We are also hoping it addresses how to
deal with crypto wallet transfers."
"We
will take a view on whether to ban wallet transfers depending on what the
report suggests. The legislation part is still being worked on. When we taxed
it (in Budget 2022), we made it clear that legislation is still a work in
progress. This report would help address the legislation aspect to a
considerable extent," the official detailed.
India
is currently not FATF-compliant on crypto assets since the global money
laundering and terrorist financing watchdog requires countries to have a clear
position on the legality of crypto assets to be compliant.
Indian
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently chaired a meeting of the Financial
Stability and Development Council (FSDC) where issues relating to crypto assets
were discussed. The Council stressed the urgent need for a clear consensus on
the legality of cryptocurrencies.
The
finance minister also recently had a meeting with the managing director of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, where she urged the
IMF to take a lead role in regulating crypto assets.
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