The Union government will introduce a Bill to ban all private cryptocurrencies in India and introduce an official digital currency issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 will be introduced during the Winter Session of the Parliament, showed an official document on the scheduled House proceedings.
The Bill will allow some exceptions in the ban on private digital currencies “to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses”, according to the document.
The proposed law is among 26 Bills that are slated to be taken up during the Winter Session of Parliament that will commence on November 29. . The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, which seeks to withdraw the three agriculture laws that faced widespread protests for nearly a year, is also on the list.
Currently, there are no regulations on the use of cryptocurrencies in India.
Last week, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance held its first-ever meeting on cryptocurrencies with industry stakeholders. The panel, industry associations and experts on crypto finance agreed that the use of cryptocurrencies should not be banned in the country, but it should be regulated.
Earlier, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that cryptocurrencies could threaten the financial system since they are unregulated by central banks.
While delivering a keynote address at the Sydney Dialogue on November 18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged all countries to ensure that cryptocurrency does not “end up in the wrong hands”.
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