Amid talks of a crypto revolution, the crypto community in India may have to wait a little longer as the contentious cryptocurrency bill has been dropped from the ongoing parliament session.
A report from Bloomberg noted that the bill will not be presented in the parliament as the government has yet to finalize the details of the legislation. As per sources cited in the report, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi’s administration was looking for wider consultation before nailing down rules to govern digital currencies. However, the last session is on the 23rd of December and the schedule did not include the cryptocurrency bill.
Also noteworthy, the Cabinet has not approved the proposed legislation.
A lot has been speculated about the bill but the description from the parliament’s website suggested a proposal for a central bank digital currency. It also noted that the legislation sought to “prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.”
No clarity has been offered by officials over what could be the exceptions under the current bill.
It can’t be ignored that India‘s crypto market has boomed over the past year and also has a mention among the world’s biggest markets for digital assets accounting for 641% growth in 2021, per a report from Chainalysis.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured that the bill was reworked to make it more recent. But the Reserve Bank of India has demanded caution. The central bank of the country has remained apprehensive of allowing crypto as a financial asset, but the government has warranted “progressive and forward-looking” regulations.