Probir Roy Chowdhury, Partner, J. Sagar Associates (JSA) on Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcement on Crypto for 2022-2023 in Parliament

“Industry stakeholders will certainly appreciate the introduction of a centralized digital currency by the government as it promotes a reliable and alternate payment tender. That being said, the proposed digital rupee and its pricing will be entirely regulated and controlled by the government. Apart from the ‘digital rupee’, the government is not keen to recognize the availability of any other kind of digital currency in India. As a result, free market players will not be permitted to operate or use cryptocurrencies other than the digital currency issued by RBI. This will prevent market players from entering into several digital transactions that require such other kinds of cryptocurrencies. Hence, the only way to bridge this gap would be if the government came up with a set of regulations to govern all kinds of digital currencies in use in India, instead of a sole government controlled currency.” Probir Roy Chowdhury, Partner, J. Sagar Associates (JSA)