Indian Union Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the nation will introduce a digital currency backed by a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guarantee. The central bank-backed crypto is aimed at faster and traceable transactions compared to traditional banking.
“We don’t encourage it because we don’t want anybody to be stuck at some point with a cryptocurrency that has no backing and nobody at the backend.”
“As far as cryptocurrency, which is not backed by the Central Govt, while there is no ban as such, we are taxing it very heavily,” he added. Despite having the highest crypto adoption rankings this year, India’s heavy taxation to curb illegal activity has pushed more than 90% of Indian crypto trading offshore, according to a report by the Esya Centre.
Per local reports, the minister clarified that India has imposed heavy taxes on unbacked crypto to discourage their use, rather than blanket bans.
