This week, India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, proposed taxing crypto income at 30%.
A petition has been initiated on Change.org for the government of India to “introduce reasonable crypto tax policies.”
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her Budget2022-23 speech earlier this week that crypto income shall be taxed at30% and no deduction, except the cost of acquisition, will be allowed.
Aditya Singh, who runs the Youtube channel “Crypto India,” started the petition which calls on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finances Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to make changes to the tax proposal. At the time of writing, more than 58,000 people have signed the petition.
The petition begins by noting that there are about a 15-20million crypto investors in India as well as several hundred thousand young Indians who are part of the industry. In addition, Indian investors are holding about $6 billion in crypto assets. The petition adds:
Crypto Industry also contributes significantly to the country in the form of providing employment, bringing in FDI Investments, GSTpayments, and Income tax revenues to the government.
Furthermore, the proposed 1% tax deducted at source(TDS) should be reduced to 0.05%, and “Loss set-off and carry-forward should be allowed since crypto markets are in their initial stages and are highly volatile.” The cost of acquisition should also be defined “to include exchange fees, blockchain network fees, interest payments, royalty payments on NFTs, etc.”
“We urge you to kindly consider these requests from the industry. Since the proposals in their current form have a devastating impact not only on crypto traders but crypto industry as a whole.” The petition concludes.
