Due to a 30% tax on income and a 1% fee per transaction on crypto trades, Indian crypto traders may give up and abandon the market.
Trading volume on three main Indian crypto exchanges has dropped 72.5 percent on average since July 1, when the country imposed a 1% transaction tax.
TDS went into effect on July 1 and appears to have had a detrimental impact on traders, as exchange volumes decreased from 37.4 percent on BitBNS to 90.9 percent on CoinDCX on July 3. Volumes have significantly stabilized since the lows, but are still down 56.8 percent on average, according to CoinGecko.
On July 4, the Indian YouTube channel Crypto India reported that exchange revenues are terrible due to low activity levels, based on a 0.1 percent trading charge. WazirX, CoinDCX, and Zebpay raked in a total of $21,649 each day at the lowest volume levels.
For the time being, crypto dealers like Mumbai’s Shounak Shetty are also suffering. Shetty told the Economic Times on July 4 that he feels the TDS and 30% income tax on bitcoin exchanges in India will harm the country’s talent pool. He stated,
“Like other traders, I am trying to figure out if it’s possible to stay profitable on Indian exchanges. This will lead to another brain drain of professional traders to other countries like Dubai that are more welcoming.”
Anuj Chaudhary, the Policy Analyst at WazirX, noted in the June 30 episode of The WazirX Show on YouTube that the 1% TDS is charged on “digital assets, whether they’re NFT, crypto assets, metaverse, or any form of transactions happening on top of public blockchains.”
The tax will be in force for three months as a test to see how it affects the market. While trading volumes are now low, officials want to see long-term benefits.
Gift cards used to purchase goods or receive a discount, mileage points, reward points, and loyalty rewards without monetary considerations, as well as subscriptions to websites, platforms, or applications, are free from tax.
Muthuswamy Iyer, Head of Legal at WazirX, Chaudhary’s on-air counterpart, correctly predicted that the TDS would significantly affect high-volume, high-value traders on Indian platforms. He also feels that the TDS will deter beginners and low-frequency traders from getting crypto exposure.
In June, the average daily transaction volume between WazirX, Zebpay, BitBNS, and CoinDCX was over $9.6 million per day, but by July 4, it had dropped to around $5.6 million.
