After the Indian Supreme Court ruling in favor of the cryptocurrency exchanges, the government is now planning to introduce a law to ban the usage of digital currencies in the country.
Reported by local news agency Economic Times on Friday, the Indian finance ministry has moved a note for inter-ministerial consultation on the ban on Cryptocurrencies .
The note will be first sent to the cabinet of ministers and then it will be moved to a parliamentary discussion body.
This came when the apex court in the country has squashed a ban by the central bank on the banks under its purview from offering any services to the crypto-related businesses.
The ruling came when the Indian cryptocurrency industry already suffered a lot of damage due to the harsh ban. However, since then demand in the market skyrocketed.
Draconian proposals against crypto dealers
Though the details of the ministry’s proposal are not known yet, a high-level panel earlier made harsh suggestions to curb the growing cryptocurrency market in the country.
In July 2019, the headed by former finance secretary Subhash Garg proposed a complete ban on virtual currencies along with a $3.3 million fine and up to 10 years imprisonment on anyone involving in the dealing of digital currencies.
The panel, however, also suggested the central bank to look into the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Notably, India is seen as one of the biggest markets for digital currencies, only suppressed by the hostile government and regulators.
With Binance’s acquisition of WazirX, a local crypto Exchange , the global crypto giants are also entering the Indian market. Another major exchange, CoinDCX, recently raised funding from Polychain Capital and Cinbase for the expansion of its offerings.
Meanwhile, an earlier report suggested that the central bank is also planning to appeal the apex court’s decision favoring crypto.
