Crypto regulations: Indian Parliament to give accelerated hearing
2 min readTL;DR Breakdown
- India’s government wants to fast-track its crypto regulation bill.
- President Kovind could sign an ordinance that would ban crypto assets in the country by March.
The mind of the Indian Authorities appear set in stone as they are looking to take a short-cut towards enacting their recently proposed bill on ban of all cryptocurrencies in the country. A report from CNBC has said that the authorities want to take the “ordinance route” which would fast track the implementation of the bill by the country’s government.
President Kovind could sign a crypto regulation ordinance
Using the ordinance method, it means the President of the country, Ram Nath Kovind, would issue an “ordinance” due to the fact that the Parliament is not in session. This would allow the Indian government to take legislative actions that would lead to the introduction of the crypto law within a month after it has been issued.
The report highlighted the fact that the necessary parties involved have already begun working on drafting the new crypto regulation ordinance. Timsy Jaipuria, a reporter with CNBC, noted that the government wanted this bill to be passed quickly. He added that citizens of the country would have to be patient to see what other plans the government has up their sleeves.
As it stands presently, the crypto ban could become effective as early as March this year. The country’s parliament is discussing the bill in its sessions. However, they are expected to go on a recess between February 16 and March 7.
President Kovind would, most likely, be able to wield his authority during this period when the legislators are on recess.
India’s government muddies crypto regulation
The recently proposed bill is vague about its definition of “private cryptocurrencies” and at the same time, it also claims that it would leave “exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.” This remains unclear to many in the crypto community in the country as they do not know if this new crypto regulation is an outright ban or not.
Kumar Gaurav of Cashaa says this new bill might be an attempt by the government to cut down the use of crypto assets for illegal activities and not an outright ban on its usage.
The country had earlier imposed a two years blanket ban on all crypto assets in the country. This, however, was overturned by the Supreme Court of the Asian country.
