Though there is still little clarity regarding the future of cryptocurrencies in India, the authorities promise to present crypto regulations in July.
As it has become known a new draft of cryptocurrency regulations will be revealed in July. According to Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of India’s Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) at the Ministry of Finance, draft regulations have been almost prepared and soon become publicly available.
Earlier, Indian authorities didn’t have a single opinion on the future of cryptocurrencies. But now investors and exchanges are looking forward to seeing the positive changes in the governmental attitude.
Three month ago, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, ordered all regulated financial institutions to stop offering services to businesses and individuals working with cryptocurrencies.
The RBI gave commercial banks three months to fulfill its order. The necessity to stop dealing with cryptos was explained by the governmental efforts to protect consumers’ rights and prevent money laundering.
Nevertheless, not so long ago the bank’s officials admitted that they had taken such a decision without proper analysis of the situation and studies of the issue.
As it has been recently reported, Indian exchanges already began their preparations for the times when the ban enters into force. The exchanges have terminated fiat deposits and withdrawals and expanded crypto-to-crypto transactions.
Moreover, a lot of Indian crypto organizations were not ready to keep silent and filed a number of petitions against this ban. Initially, the Supreme Court appointed the hearing on July 20, it means two weeks after the RBI’s ban comes into effect, which has led to a very negative reaction of the local crypto community.
But the Supreme Court has agreed to reschedule the hearing for an earlier date on request by one of the companies that has filed a petition – the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Now, it is planned to hold the hearing on July 3, before the planned enforcement of the RBI’s ban
Speaking about new crypto regulations Subhash Chandra Garg from the Ministry of Finance who is also the head of the interdisciplinary committee that was formed with a view to examine the framework surrounding virtual currencies stated: “We are fairly close to developing a template [for crypto regulations] that we think is in the best interests of the country. We have prepared a draft which we intend to discuss with the committee members in the first week of July.”
“We’ve actually moved quite a lot [in drafting regulations] in that, what part of the [crypto] business should be banned, what should be preserved and what not. That kind of detailed work has happened. Now should be in a position to wrap this up in the first fortnight of July,” added he.
The inter-governmental committee was established in early 2017. And it was expected that it would bring some clarity to the issues related to cryptocurrencies in India. But only one year later we can observe some real progress in this sphere.
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