The Indian government has planned to introduce a bill to ban “private cryptocurrency” at the upcoming Winter Conference of Parliament.
According to a published report from the Lok Sabha, the Indian Parliament will vote on the “Encryption and Supervision of the Official Digital Currency Act 2021” designated by the central bank of the country to promote the creation of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
India has announced that it is ready to begin testing its electronic rupee towards the end of 2021. The governor of India’s central bank, Shaktikanta Das, disclosed that information in an interview with the CNBC media on August 30.
India is expected to ban all private cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to promote the development of underlying blockchain technology.
The announcement stated:
“The Bill also seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India. However, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.”
The details of the bill still remain unannounced. According to Aditya Singh, the co-founder of the Indian YouTube channel Crypto India with more than 200,000 fans, the law is likely to be an initial ban proposed by the IMC committee led by Subhash Chandra Garg’s revised version of the draft.
In March 2020, the Supreme Court of India overturned the comprehensive ban on cryptocurrencies imposed by the central bank two years ago. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified its position concerning the previous ban on cryptocurrency-related activities in the country and the adherence of financial institutions to the rule.
As reported by Blockchain.News on November 17, India is planning to bar the use of cryptocurrencies for payments or transactions, but allow them to be held as assets such as gold, shares, and bonds.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged cooperation between the world’s democracies to ensure that crypto coins such as Bitcoin and Ethereum do not end up in the wrong hands while pointing out issues concerning cryptocurrencies.
It is reported that there are approximately 1.5-20 million cryptocurrency investors in India, which have exceeded their holdings of approximately 4000 billion rupees, worth approximately US$5,366,342,315.81.
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