India’s Member of Parliament Asks For Government’s Stance on Cryptocurrency Trading

By Swati Kishore

Member of the Parliament of India, Varun Gandhi presented a questionnaire in Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament. Gandhi asked the government a slew of questions regarding the state of cryptocurrency in the nation.

A new year brings with itself new hopes. The crypto community in India has been waiting all along to hear about what the government has to say on the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the world’s sixth largest economy and 2019 just might be the year where the community will get some clarity on the subject!

One of the questions submitted in the Parliament of India asked the government about its stance on the legality of trading in digital currencies.

The questionnaire further requested the government to answer about the details of the composition of the panel established to draft regulations to govern cryptocurrencies and the recommendations made by the panel as well as the timeline of the expected release of the regulations.

Here is the attached questionnaire, with the answers provided by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Shri. Pon. Radhakrishnan.

It is interesting to note that the government has not entirely ruled out the possibility of rolling out a national digital currency.

As per the response by Shri.Pon.Radhakrishnan in the Parliament, the government is not actively tracking the transactions carried out through cryptocurrencies.

The answer by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance further stated that the committee working on crypto regulations is composed of several members from various departments such as the SEBI, CBDT, the Reserve Bank of India, Department of Economic Affairs, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

However, one thing that is not very encouraging is the Minister’s response to the timeline of establishing a clear regulatory framework. The answer reads as follows,

“In the absence of a globally acceptable solution and the need to devise a technically feasible solution, the Department is pursuing the matter with due caution. It is difficult to state a specific timeline to come up with clear recommendations.”

It appears that the Indian government is still not willing to give out a clear framework for the regulation of digital currencies. And while that might be disappointing for the crypto community, however, the year is still new, and we can still expect some good news to come from the government in the future.