Despite the country's categorical stance on cryptocurrencies, a committee constituted by the Indian Ministry of Finance, headed by the Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), is working on a set of rules and an action plan to allow the use of certain crypto assets. Once the draft proposals are finalized, the bill will be tabled in Parliament, local newspaper DNA India reported.
“The Committee is studying the possibility of using cryptocurrencies or distributed ledger technology (DLT) in financial transactions and developing the necessary regulation for this. Given the fact that cryptocurrency is completely banned in the country, the committee is considering other opportunities for its use, which it intends to bring into the mainstream,” said DEA Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg.
Recognizing the potential and usefulness of blockchain technology, Mr. Garg categorically denies any use of cryptocurrencies now and in the future, including in payment systems.
The committee issued several recommendations, warning citizens about the risks associated with cryptocurrency, which the country's authorities do not recognize as a currency as such. However, Garg believes that the government may well allow crypto-tokenization, which, if adopted, will not replace fiat currency:
“A person will need to pay physical money to buy a token, which can be stored as a code on any basic mobile phone. It could even be used for money transfers. Thus, it is easy to implement from both a technological and regulatory perspective. But in the case of cryptocurrency, it must first be authorized as legal tender.”
The Committee, among other things, analyzes the possible consequences of the legalization of cryptocurrency by the state. Litigation regarding the Central Bank of India's ban on banking services for cryptocurrency companies continues, with no success for the affected parties. The court recently postponed the final hearing on the injunction, originally scheduled for July 20, until September 2018.
According to https://cointelegraph.com
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