India’s Economy Ministry is finalizing a consultation document on cryptocurrencies to be submitted to the federal government.
The implementation of the document can bring the country of 14 billion closer to the international regulatory consensus on digital assets.
On Monday, May 30, during an event hosted by the Department of Labor and Employment, Business Secretary Ajay Seth announced that his department was finalizing work on the consultation document that would define the country’s position on cryptocurrencies.
The document was prepared in collaboration with industry stakeholders, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Seth specified that the document would strengthen India’s commitment to “some sort of global regulation”:
“Digital assets, whatever way we want to deal with those assets, there has to be a broad framework on which all economies have to be together.”
When asked about a possible total ban, the official acknowledged that a national ban would not work in isolation:
“Whatever we do, even if we go to extremes, countries that have chosen to ban cannot succeed unless there is a global consensus.”
In recent years, India has shown a very militant attitude towards cryptocurrencies. In 2017, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Ministry of Finance compared digital currencies to Ponzi schemes and banned commercial banks and lenders from any operations with them.
In 2022, long after the ban was officially lifted, the RBI warned of the “dollarization threat” posed by cryptocurrency, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi called cryptocurrency a global challenge in his recent virtual speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. which requires “collective and coordinated action” by all national and international bodies.
