Supreme Court of India Rebukes the Government for the Absence of Crypto Rules

• The Supreme Court of India has asked the Union government if it is capable of regulating crypto.
• The apex judicial authority in India is worried about the growing number of people losing money to crypto scams.
• Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta said that it is “unfortunate” that the government has yet to release clear guidelines.
• The government has been working on a crypto regulation bill since 2018, but no progress has been made.

The Supreme Court of India has slammed the Union government due to the absence of crypto regulations in the country, stating that it is “unfortunate” that the government has yet to release any clear guidelines establishing a framework to regulate the digital asset sector. Interestingly, the world’s most populous country has recently imposed a 30% capital gains tax on crypto investments combined with a 1% tax deducted at source on all transactions.

The observation from the Supreme Court came after the apex judicial authority witnessed a surge in crypto-related crimes and scams being rampant in the country. As per local media reports, the judicial authority has asked the Union government whether it plans to create a new body to regulate the crypto sector and crackdown on the increasing scams that are happening in the space

According to the report, Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta noted:

“You still don’t have any laws, unfortunately. Do you have an agency at the national level to understand these cases and investigate them properly? We want you to identify a national specialized agency, in the national interest.”

The Supreme Court of India has stated its observation after a growing number of petitions have been submitted over increasing fraud cases surrounding cryptocurrencies in the country. The court seeks an answer from the Union government on whether it is capable of setting up a mechanism to investigate such cases.

It is crucial to note that the fight for the establishment of clear crypto regulation in India has been going on for a very long time. Local crypto exchanges have witnessed record low profits in the region after high taxes and TDS were imposed by authorities. Regulators compare cryptocurrencies to gambling and see them as a threat

On the instruction of the Supreme Court, the government has been working on a crypto regulation bill since 2018 but has yet to make progress on it. As reported earlier by Bitnation, the Reserve Bank of India published its Financial Stability Report on June 28, calling for global regulation of stablecoins. The central bank believes that stablecoins might threaten a developing economy via currency substitution.