India to Finalize Crypto Consultation Paper With IMF, World Bank Input

India’s Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth said Monday a consultation paper on cryptocurrencies is in the final stages before being submitted to the federal government.

Speaking during the country’s “ICONIC Week” event hosted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Seth said the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, along with domestic stakeholders, had provided input on the paper.

While exact details of the paper were not disclosed, Seth added his country would likely seek to strengthen India’s commitment to “some sort of a global regulations” on crypto, Times of India reported.

“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,” Seth said. “We need a global consensus on crypto regulation.”

India has a checkered history with crypto and digital assets, such as NFTs and decentralized finance protocols.

In December 2017, the RBI and the Ministry of Finance issued statements comparing crypto to Ponzi schemes. Four months later, the central bank issued a circular prohibiting commercial banks and lenders from dealing in crypto, as well as servicing entities doing business with digital assets.

The ban was eventually overturned by India’s Supreme Court in March 2020, which labeled the central bank’s circular “unconstitutional.” At the beginning of last year, India’s government said it would introduce a bill to create its digital rupee while at the same time banning “all private cryptocurrencies.”

The country finally moved to tax crypto profits by 30% in a play that was heavily criticized by market participants as being unfair and potentially damaging to its domestic digital asset industry.

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