Ashish Singhal, Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber said – This budget reflects the government’s intention of a business friendly approach towards the crypto sector while protecting the interests of consumers and the treasury. We look forward to working with the government to help bring crypto-asset taxation at par with other asset classes.
During her speech, Nirmala Sitharaman also acknowledged the “unprecedented” increase in transactions in virtual digital assets in the recent past. He announced that even gifts given in the form of digital assets are now under tax scrutiny in the country. Along with this, payment made for transfer of digital assets will also attract 1% tax in the country. This tax has to be paid by the recipient.
Welcoming the decision, industry experts said that this tax regime will make decentralized crypto-based income trackable.
Commenting on this, Amit Singhania, partner, Indian law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said that taxing cryptocurrency transfers will enable the government to better monitor cryptocurrency transactions. Limiting the surcharge rate on long term capital gains to 15 per cent will boost investment in capital assets.
Industry experts have lauded the Indian government’s approach towards the crypto sector, but the lack of information has raised some concerns.
For example, the finance minister did not provide any further explanation on what is meant by a crypto exchange, including GST implications.
Speaking to Gadgets 360, Satwik Vishwanath, CEO of crypto exchange Unocoin, said that the government may consider levying a lower tax percentage.
It is also not clear whether non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are counted as “virtual digital assets” in the country. NFTs are digital collections. They are owned and stored on a blockchain network. According to data from DappRadar, In 2021, NFT sales reached around $ 25 billion (about Rs 1,84,690 crore).
<!–
–>
,