India Won’t Recognize BTC As Currency, Nor Does It Collect BTC Transaction Data
December 01 2021 - 4:04AM
NEWSBTC
India continues its flirtation with Bitcoin and other
cryptocurrencies. The Indian Parliament’s winter sessions started,
and, as it turns out, BTC won’t be the star of the show. In fact,
the lower house of the parliament asked the Finance Minister point
blanc if there was a proposal to recognize Bitcoin as currency. The
answer was a resounding “no.” According to AMB Crypto:
“While more clarity is set to emerge in this context, some reports
have claimed that the Indian administration is planning to make
cryptocurrencies available as an asset. Additionally, others
suggest cryptos will not be accepted as legal tender. Additionally,
the minister also told the Parliament that the “government does not
collect data on Bitcoin transactions.” All of this information came
in the form of a note. In that document, the Financial Minister
also answered “whether the Government has allowed cryptocurrency
exchanges as a legally permitted entity in India”:
“Cryptocurrencies are unregulated in India. RBI has vide its
circular dated May 31st, 2021, advised its regulated entities to
continue to carry out customer due diligence processes in line with
regulations governing standards for Know Your Customer (KYC),
Anti-Money Laundering (AML).” So, as you can read, it’s the same
old script the other countries are using. If this is the case, what
caused all the confusion? Mixed Signals Coming Out Of India NewsBTC
has been on this case. Just three weeks ago, while discussing the
India exchange’s remarkable growth, we said optimistically:
“Discussions around regulations started to arise back then. India’s
crypto exchanges and investors participated in off-the-record
meetings with law enforcement agencies and banks hoping to reach a
point of amicability. The expectations are for the government to
classify bitcoin as an asset class and for the Securities and
Exchange Board of India to regulate cryptocurrencies and bring
clarity, closing the doors to another ban.” However, just a week
ago, we reported that the Reserve Bank of India “is set to launch
its CBDC by December.” And what was that news seasoned with? A ban,
of course: “A bill was recently presented, and sets to shake things
up for many of big name coins in India. The ‘Cryptocurrency and
Regulation of Official Digital Currency’ bill will create a
facilitative framework for an official digital currency to be
issued by the Reserve Bank of India, and that will look to ban all
private cryptocurrencies, which includes Bitcoin and Ethereum.” It
was a fair conclusion, considering. In early 2018, the Reserve Bank
of India banned the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies by
entities under the RBI’s jurisdiction. BTC price chart on Bitbay |
Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com What’s The Indian Parliament’s
Current Position? The headlines from the recent session with the
Financial Minister are those two. There’s no proposal to recognize
Bitcoin as currency and the government doesn’t collect Bitcoin
transaction data. Fortunately for them, the blockchain is an
immutable ledger. They don’t have to collect a thing, it’s all
there. #Parliamentwintersession | FM In ParliamentNo proposal to
recognise Bitcoin as a currency Here's more#cryptocurrency #Bitcoin
pic.twitter.com/DYXGTobDQ3 — CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) November 29,
2021 In any case, AMBcrypto sees it as: “A crucial piece of
information, especially since some bodies associated with the
ruling party had called for central regulation of crypto. For
instance, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch’s (SJM) Co-convenor Ashwani
Mahajan had suggested that crypto-data around mining and
transactions be stored only on domestic servers.” Reporting on the
same session, Asian News International saw another angle. “This is
a risky area & not in a complete regulatory framework. No
decision was taken on banning its advertisements.” This is a risky
area & not in a complete regulatory framework. No decision was
taken on banning its advertisements. Steps are taken to create
awareness through RBI&SEBI. Govt will soon introduce a Bill: FM
Nirmala Sitharaman on Cryptocurrency during Question Hour in Rajya
Sabha pic.twitter.com/WwopPdBQHg — ANI (@ANI) November 30, 2021 In
another stage, former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg cleared things
up. He created the bill that seemed to aim to ban all
cryptocurrencies in India. Cointelegraph reports: “In an interview
with local news channel News 18, Garg clarified: “[The description
of the crypto bill] was perhaps a mistake. It is misleading to say
that private cryptocurrencies will be banned and to intimate the
government about the same.” So, by “private cryptocurrencies” he
didn’t mean Bitcoin or Ethereum. Got it. Still, India’s confusion
about cryptocurrencies is the main topic here. They don’t seem to
know what to do about them over there. Featured Image:
Darshak12Pandya on Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
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