A director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that crypto regulation is “certainly high on the agenda” for India. “We are trying to come up with global standards for #crypto asset regulations. I think that’s important for India to also adopt,” said the IMF official.
IMF on Crypto Regulation in India
Tobias Adrian, Financial Advisor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), discussed India’s crypto regulations in an interview with PTI on Tuesday during the IMF’s Annual Spring Meeting and the World Bank.
Adrian said that for India:
Regulating crypto assets is certainly high on the agenda.
“It’s something that’s being done on a global scale,” he said. “In the Financial Stability Board, we are trying to come up with global standards for the regulation of crypto assets. I think it is important for India to adopt as well.
Officials of India’s Ministry of Finance have reportedly been consulting with the IMF and the World Bank on crypto policies as the government works on how to treat crypto assets.
The IMF director then spoke about the taxation of crypto transactions in India. “Of course, I know that India has changed the taxation of crypto assets and that’s a welcome move.”
The Indian government started taxing cryptocurrency income at 30% without allowing loss offsets or deductions on April 1. Crypto trading volumes subsequently plunged across exchanges in the country. A further 1% tax deducted at source (TDS) will soon go into effect.
The IMF views India in a “very positive” way overall, Adrian noted. He was quoted as saying, “I think there’s a lot of opportunity and growth (in India, it’s coming back). There is a recovery. There is a lot of excitement around new growth opportunities, new developments… We always appreciate that growth is inclusive and affects everyone. But our overall outlook in India is quite positive.
The IMF official also discussed central bank digital currency (CBDC). In India, the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is actively working on a digital rupee which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said will be introduced this financial year.
“The digital rupee will be the digital form of our physical rupee and will be regulated by the RBI,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi previously explained. “The digital rupee will revolutionize the fintech industry,” Modi noted. Earlier this month, RBI Deputy Governor T. Rabi Sankar said the central bank would proceed with the launch of a digital currency “in a very calibrated and graduated manner, assessing the impact while along the line”.
Commenting on India exploring a central bank digital currency, the IMF director stated:
That could be quite important for financial inclusion and financial development, and we are watching very closely what India is doing. We welcome those policy developments as well.
