Indian Government
Crypto tax doesn’t legalize trading, says Indian tax department chief
The head of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in India said the recent announcement of a 30% tax on crypto holdings doesn’t necessarily make the crypto trade legal in India. The finance minister of India announced a 30% tax on crypto holdings during the budget session on Feb. 1, triggering several headlines on the lines of “India legalizes crypto” However, CBDT chief JB Mohapatra aimed to debunk these misconceptions. Mohaptra in a post-budget presser said that the new crypto tax would help the income tax department measure the depth of the digital currency market in the country. He also stressed that imposing a tax on the nascent crypto market doesn’t necessarily legalize its trade in the country. He explained: “The crypto trade or the digital assets transactions do not ipso facto b...
Indian taxman recovers $6.62M from WazirX for evading tax on commission
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has reportedly paid over $6.6 million (49.2 crore rupees) following non-payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on trade commissions. The total recovery includes the pending tax of $5.43 million (40.5 crore rupees), the interest and a penalty for non-payment. Government officials from the Central GST and Central Excise committee (CGST Mumbai Zone) recovered the funds from the crypto exchange after detecting a GST evasion of $5.43 million on the commissions. A typical GST fraud involves creating fake invoices without actually moving the goods between the seller and the buyer. Officers of CGST Mumbai East comm’te have detected GST Evasion of Rs 40.5 Cr. on commission of Wazir X Crypto Currency & recovered Rs 49.2 Cr. in cash as GST, interest & Pena...
Indian police commissioner issues a public warning against crypto frauds
The Additional Commissioner of Police Shikha Goel warned Indian citizens about the rise in cybercrime in an event hosted by the city police of Hyderabad, India, suggesting not to transfer cryptocurrencies to unauthorized private wallets. Goel highlighted the various methods that are actively being used by fraudsters to dupe investors such as lucrative investment opportunities, illegitimate bank transfers and cryptocurrencies. Acknowledging the growth of Indian crypto users, Goel added: “They [fraudsters] ask you to share your cryptocurrency details. And once you put it in your wallet, then the money is taken away.” After simplifying the elaborate fraud in a sentence, Goel also highlighted that sixteen such cases have been registered involving cryptocurrencies. Do not transfer your cryptocu...
Indian parliament’s agenda for winter session no longer includes crypto bill
The Indian government may still be considering a bill that could ban certain cryptocurrencies in the country, but lawmakers are unlikely to vote on any legislation in the current parliamentary session. According to a Friday publication, India’s lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, will likely not be looking at a bill proposing the prohibition of “all private cryptocurrencies” before its winter session ends on Thursday. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill does not appear as one of the seven bills on the government body’s agenda over the last days of its 2021 session. A Nov. 23 bulletin for the Lok Sabha stated that Indian lawmakers could vote on legislation that creates “a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency” issued by ...
Indian state government to accredit Web2 and Web3 blockchain startups
The state government of Telangana announced the launch of the India Blockchain Accelerator program to foster early-stage Web2 and Web3 startups and blockchain developers aimed at solving real-world challenges. The program will be launched in partnership with unicorn crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber and Lumos Labs, a technology innovation management firm. In a dialogue with Cointelegraph, Rama Devi Lanka, Director Emerging Technology and Officer on Special Duty (OSD), ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana, highlighted the state’s intent to adopt blockchain projects across multiple use cases: “Some of the interesting use cases that the state has already piloted in Blockchain include – T-Chits (Chit funds in Blockchain), Supply Chain (Seed Traceability), E-voting (Digital ...
Indian PM calls for cryptocurrencies to ’empower’ democracy at global summit
Cryptocurrency made an appearance at a global online summit for world leaders in a speech from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At Friday’s events for the Summit for Democracy hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden, Modi said India would be willing to offer other countries “innovative digital solutions” to facilitate free and fair elections and governance. In addition, the Prime Minister called for a global standard on cryptocurrencies and major social media platforms, likely referring to the impact some have had on politics in India as well as many other countries: “We must also jointly shape global norms for emerging technologies like social media and cryptocurrencies so that they are used to empower democracy, not to undermine it […] By working together, democracies can meet...
India warns Twitter of consequences if it fails to follow new rules
India’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full compliance, according to Reuters. Under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, which took effect in May, social media companies could be subject to legal action if they fail to follow the code’s provisions, which are aimed at regulating the platforms’ content. The new rules call for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove content within 36 hours of receiving a legal order. The rules also require the compani...
U.S. pledges sustained help for India in tackling coronavirus crisis
Senior U.S. officials on Tuesday pledged sustained support for India in helping it deal with the world’s worst current surge of COVID-19 infections, warning the country is still at the “front end” of the crisis and overcoming it will take some time. The White House’s National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, told a virtual event on the U.S. assistance that President Joe Biden had told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a phone call on Monday: “You let me know what you need and we will do it.” Campbell said at the event, organized by the U.S.-India Business Council and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, that Washington was committed to helping the world’s second most populous country get to grips with the crisis. “We all have to realize that this is no...
India arrests 75 in Kashmir after local elections
The Indian government has arrested at least 75 Kashmiri political leaders and activists to forestall political unrest after an alliance of Kashmir’s regional political parties won local elections, leaders and a police official said on Saturday. The District Development Council elections, concluded early this week, were the first local polls since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the special status of the Muslim-majority region last year. New Delhi then cracked down on the opposition and rounded up hundreds of people to preempt protests and violence. The latest detentions, which include separatist leaders and members of the banned Jamat-e-Islami group, were for preventive custody, said a senior police official, who asked not to be identified. But Imran Nabi Dar, spokesman f...
India’s Serum Institute seeks approval for COVID-19 vaccine
The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume, has sought government approval for emergency-use authorisation of the coronavirus vaccine that it has developed in partnership with the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca. “As promised, before the end of 2020, @SerumInstIndia has applied for emergency use authorisation for the first made-in-India vaccine, COVISHIELD,” the company CEO Adar Poonawalla tweeted on Monday. The experimental vaccine can be stored at two to eight degrees Celsius and can be distributed more easily in India, which has the world’s second-highest number of infections at 9.6 million. The company has applied to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), with Poonawalla saying the vaccine will “save countless lives” witho...
- 1
- 2
