Many Indians have signed a petition for the government to introduce reasonable crypto tax policies. This week, India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, proposed taxing crypto income at 30%.
Indians sign petition urging government to rethink crypto tax proposal
A petition has been started on Change.org for the Indian government to “introduce reasonable crypto tax policies”.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her Budget 2022-23 speech earlier this week that crypto income shall be taxed at 30% and no deduction, except the cost of acquisition, will be allowed.
Aditya Singh, who runs the “Crypto India” Youtube channel, started the petition which calls on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to make changes to the tax proposal. As of this writing, over 58,000 people have signed the petition.
The petition begins by noting that there are about 15-20 million 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:
The crypto industry also contributes significantly to the country in the form of job creation, inflow of FDI investments, GST payments and tax revenue to the government.
The petition asks Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Sitharaman to consider five requests.
The first demand is that the crypto industry not be treated like the betting and gambling industries. The second is to align the currently proposed tax rate of 30% with the tax rate applicable to stock market transactions.
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.”
The petition concludes:
We invite you to please consider these industry requests. Since the proposals in their current form have a devastating impact not only on crypto traders but also on the crypto industry as a whole.
