India Plans To Develop Crypto SOPs During The G20 Presidency, FM

India Plans To Develop Crypto SOPs During The G20 Presidency, FM

India will discuss crypto regulations during its G20 presidency with member countries. The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has revealed that the Indian government hopes to develop a framework or standard operating procedure (SOP) so that countries globally "can have a technology-driven regulatory framework" for crypto.

India to Discuss Crypto Regulatory Framework With G20 Member Countries

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded her trip to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

The finance minister told a group of Indian reporters that crypto will be part of India’s agenda during its G20 presidency. Noting that various organizations are doing their research on cryptocurrency, she said:

"We would want to collate all this and do a bit of study and then bring it on to the table of the G20 so that members can discuss it and hopefully arrive at a framework or SOP so that globally, countries can have a technology-driven regulatory framework."

"But implicit in this is that we don’t want the technology to be disturbed," Sitharaman said. "We want the technology to survive and also be in a position for fintech and other sectors to benefit from it."

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s developed and developing economies. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., and the European Union (EU) are the member nations. India will assume the presidency of the G20 for one year from Dec. 1 to Nov. 30, 2023.

The Indian government is reportedly working to finalize its stance on the legality of cryptocurrency by the first quarter of next year to become Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliant. Last month, the finance minister urged the IMF to take a leading role in regulating cryptocurrency. The IMF said that it is ready to work with India on crypto regulation.

While India has yet to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, it is already taxing crypto income at 30%, in addition to levying a 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) on crypto transactions. The Ministry of Finance is also reportedly working on imposing the goods and services tax (GST) on crypto.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to have "serious concerns" about cryptocurrency. The central bank has repeatedly recommended a complete ban on all non-government-issued cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether. However, the finance minister said in July, "Any legislation for regulation or banning can be effective only after significant international collaboration on evaluation of the risks and benefits and the evolution of common taxonomy and standards."