Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said that he has no confidence in the ability of the government to figure out the complexities of this new crypto phenomenon.
Garg is a pioneer in formulating policies around crypto, and has headed the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) that drafted the cryptocurrency bill entitled "Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019".
He said, "I expressed serious doubts when the government had expressed its intent to present the bill, about the introduction of the crypto-assets in the Winter Session of Parliament. I am, therefore, not surprised to see the present situation where there is zero clarity over what is the Bill."
According to him, the government has been lashed by two forces in this matter. First, the RBI, believing that crypto-technology and businesses are only in the currency business, has been constantly hammering the government to ban the crypto-currencies and statutorily empower RBI to issue digital bank-notes.
“The crypto-currency exchanges, applying the force from the other side, want the government to treat crypto-currencies as assets and statutorily create a regulatory mechanism for the same," he added.
The government is now facing deeper challenges like crypto being potentially misused for hawala and money laundering, investments worth billions of dollars escaping to abroad and capital gains tax being avoided by the trade exchanges as well as investors.
