New Delhi: Days after the government proposed a tax of 30% on income from any form of cryptocurrencies in the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that she sees a source of tax revenue from the crypto assets.
While addressing the India Global Forum in Bengaluru, the FM said she wasn’t willing to spill beans on whether the union government wished to regulate the cryptocurrencies or ban them.
She said that consultations are currently on (over cryptocurrency) and the government would be talking about it.
While talking about the ensuing crypto market in the country, Sitharaman said, “Many Indians have seen a future in crypto, therefore I see a possibility of revenue in it”.
Earlier in February this year, the finance minister had said that the government has only imposed a tax on the profit earned from the digital assets, and has not legalized it.
“The consultations are on….anybody interested in this domain is welcome to participate after the consultation process gets duly completed, the (finance) ministry would probably sit and mull over it, which is required because we need the executive to be sure that we are not crossing any legal requirements, post which we will be coming out with what’s our position on it,” she said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, elaborating on the proposed digital rupee, Mrs Sitharaman said, “It was a conscious call taken in consultation with the central bank (RBI). We would like them to design it the way they would like to do it, but this year we expect the currency to come out from the central bank itself”.
