Indian Governor Speaks Against Private Crypto Counter Finance Minister

While addressing BFSI Insight Summit 2022 

the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India expressed his concerns about the future of cryptocurrency in India. Mr. Das talked about the recent FTX collapse and correlated it with the volatile crypto market situations and the unreliability of the public blockchain networks. 

Mr. Shaktikanta Das went on to the extent to say that cryptocurrencies could become the reason for the next financial crisis. Shaktikanta added to his statement that cryptocurrencies do not have any intrinsic value and no benefits for the end-users as he is yet to receive a credible argument. 

The points raised by the RBI governor reflect his concerns about the future economy of the country and he seemed rather uninviting towards blockchain technology. However, in his entire discourse, he made a clear distinction between private and government-backed cryptocurrencies. 

 Contrary to the statement made by the governor, the Finance Ministry of India is working with Indian crypto exchanges to create a regulatory framework for better execution of crypto taxation. The government has already started taxing the crypto profits that have legalized the exchange of cryptos in India. According to the recent reports released by CoinDCX, a leading crypto exchange, the Indian government has collected a total sum of 60 crores INR only by the TDS of 1% on each transaction. 

Apart from this, the Finance Minister of India, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the ninth meeting of the India-US Economic and Financial Partnership, stated that crypto regulation is a mutual priority for both the USA and India. 

“The United States and India look forward to sustained engagement through the longstanding US-India Financial Regulatory Dialogue, a platform for discussing emerging financial sector issues and priority areas, including … digital assets,” 

– Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, India

Interestingly, the RBI governor was one of the participants along with the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. 

The concerns shared by Mr. Das contradict the actions of the government and the finance ministry. When India is leading the G20 summit and asking for global cooperation on cryptocurrency regulation, this statement by Mr. Das seems unnecessary. However, this could also be a part of the balance that the government is trying to achieve in its stand on cryptocurrency regulations. 

Also, Read - Answering The Concerns of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das About Crypto