In 2018, the then finance minister Arun Jaitley had said categorically on the floor of Rajya Sabha that cryptocurrency was not a legal tender in India.
Two years later, on March 4, the Supreme Court in a petition moved by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) struck down a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular that had effectively imposed a ban on virtual currency trading in India. Following this, RBI lifted its ban on cryptocurrency.
Since then there has been an expectation that the Union government would enact a law detailing the contours of virtual currency, particularly cryptocurrency. There was also heightened expectation during this year’s budget session that the government would let people know about its opinion on virtual currency, however, that did not happen.
During a recent interview to The Hindu, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government had been speaking to stakeholders, prompting speculation that a bill would be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of the parliament. There has been a build up in curiosity as to whether it would be to legalise and to bring cryptocurrency under the GST regime, or to completely place a ban on it.
Watch this video to know more about the legal issues surrounding cryptocurrency in India.
