Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao Seeks To Take Up Crypto Industry's Concerns As per reports, in November 2021, a lot of Indian entrepreneurs shifted to Dubai and registered their businesses there, because of the high taxes and rigid rules for the cryptocurrency platforms
By Teena Jose
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KT Rama Rao, Telangana IT and industries minister, has offered to lobby the Indian government on behalf of the crypto industry to address their concerns. He was speaking on a podcast.
"One of the things that I want to do is, to take it up with the government of India and understand what exactly their concerns are and we also want to play that role of being a sort of advocate, partner for the industry," said Rao.
The crypto industry is constantly facing many issues. As per reports, in November 2021, a lot of Indian entrepreneurs shifted to Dubai and registered their businesses there, because of the high taxes and rigid rules for the cryptocurrency platforms. Mentioning about this, Rao pointed out that, "I would be more than happy to work with the crypto industry, leaders who are migrating to Dubai and other places, to sit with them, to have a conversation with them and go and meet the finance minister, commerce minister and IT minister and tell them that we cannot afford to have this."
"Because on one hand, the government is saying that there is not enough clarity on how to go about handling crypto, and at the same time the government went ahead and put a tax on crypto in the budget. So, it was a bit of an ambivalent stand so to speak," he added.
As per reports, earlier this year, finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced 30 per cent tax on income from virtual digital assets and a 1 per cent TDS on transactions of more than INR 10,000. This created a big blow in the crypto industry. Along with this, reducing the trade volumes ahead of the implementation of the TDS has also created a major impact in the crypto platforms. On July, Internet and mobile association of India (IAMAI) announced the dismantling of its blockchain and crypto assets council (BACC), stating the uncertain regulatory environment for the crypto space in the country.
As per market studies, almost 20 million people invested in cryptocurrency in India, in 2021. Currently, Indian investors hold cryptocurrency worth about $5.3 billion. The bitcoins touched their all-time highs in 2021 with a mark of $63729 on April.
