A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, led by BJP MP and former union minister Jayant Sinha, along with representatives of crypto exchanges, Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC), industry bodies, and other stakeholders, held a meeting today with industry associations and experts on cryptocurrency. During the meeting, there was a consensus that the digital currency can’t be stopped but it must be regulated, news agency ANI reported citing unnamed sources.
During the meet, the members of the Parliamentary panel are said to have wished for govt officials to appear before it and address their concerns.
This was the first meeting on the subject to be convened by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on the subject, which has generated a lot of interest as well as concerns in various quarters around investment potential and risks.
The panel, headed by Sinha, who is also a former Minister of State for Finance, will also gather inputs from academicians from IIM Ahmedabad.
An MP raised eyebrows over full-page crypto advertisements in national dailies. Experts said that cryptocurrencies are some sort of investors’ democracy, the people said.
PM Modi on Saturday led a review meeting on the digital currency, and it was decided that the government will continue to proactively engage with experts and other stakeholders on the evolving technology.
The PM’s meeting also concluded that attempts to mislead the country’s younger generation through over-promising and non-transparent advertisements should be stopped. It was also discussed that unregulated crypto markets cannot be allowed to become avenues for money laundering and terror financing, they said.
The Supreme Court in early March 2020 had nullified the RBI circular banning cryptocurrencies. Following this on February 5, 2021, the central bank had instituted an internal panel to suggest a model for the central bank’s digital currency.
The RBI had announced its intent to come out with an official digital currency, in the face of proliferation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin about which the central bank has had many concerns.
Private digital currencies/virtual currencies/crypto currencies have gained popularity in the past one decade or so. Here, regulators and governments have been sceptical about these currencies and are apprehensive about the associated risks.
It can be noted that on March 4, 2021, the Supreme Court had set aside an RBI circular of April 6, 2018, prohibiting banks and entities regulated by it from providing services in relation to virtual currencies.
